2020 was a milestone towards greater coherence in ESG disclosure December 2020 User View by Richard Howitt, former European Parliament Rapporteur on CSR and Chief Executive at the IIRC WHILE 2020 will go down in history as the year of Covid-19, it will be written up in the accountancy and financial management textbooks of the future as the year in which a … more
On 2 December the first vaccine to prevent Covid-19 is formally approved. The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency approved the Pfizer and BioNTech mRNA Covid-19 vaccine for temporary emergency use. The vaccine was found to be over 90 percent effective in the first independent analysis of any Covid-19 vaccine in phase 3 trials (final stage before commercial licensing). Global equity … more
On 25 November, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) announce their intention to merge and launch the Value Reporting Foundation in 2021. The Foundation will merge the SASB and IIRC into a credible, international organization that maintains the Integrated Reporting <IR> Framework, advocates integrated thinking, and sets sustainability disclosure standards for enterprise value creation. Both … more
On 15 October nineteen Accounting Professors, including editors of leading accounting journals, publish an open letter to the Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees. It concerns a new IFRS Consultation Paper on Sustainability Reporting (Sept 2020), which foresees the IFRS creating a global Sustainability Standards Board (SSB). They express serious concern that the paper includes proposals inconsistent with research findings … more
On 11 September the GRI, IIRC, SASB, CDP and CDSB publish a Statement of Intent to work together towards comprehensive corporate reporting. They commit to engage with key actors such as the IOSCO, IFRS, European Commission and WEF International Business Council. Their vision statement presents different types of “nested sustainability information”, recognizing the ideas of double materiality and dynamic materiality. … more
