City & Financial Global’s 3rd Annual Sustainability Reporting Summit on 31 January will take a deep dive into the first two ISSB standards, which are a major step towards establishing a global ESG reporting baseline. While the standards build on the foundations and structure of the TCFD voluntary framework, they go much further in that they focus on all ESG-related matters, not just climate. They will also become mandatory as national authorities adopt them for reporting in their markets. 

The programme brings together an exceptional cast of speakers to consider the key issues in the round for companies as they prepare to implement the standards and for investors who will need to analyse reports from investee companies produced under the standards. It will also review broader developments in sustainability reporting internationally. 

For companies, the challenge is to identify where the standards apply across their organisational structure and most importantly, how the ISSB standards tie in with the incoming EU standards and the U.S. climate rule. They also need to understand materiality in terms of their sustainability agenda, their organisation and their suppliers (the last because Scope 3 emissions are included under the standards). Finally, they need to undertake a gap or readiness assessment to work out what needs to be done from where they are now to where they need to be in order to be compliant.