The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has today published the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy (ISSB Taxonomy), fulfilling its promise to enable investors and other capital providers to analyse sustainability-related financial disclosures efficiently.
Use of the ISSB Taxonomy by companies will enable investors to search, extract and compare sustainability-related financial disclosures as ISSB establishes its global baseline of Standards.
The Taxonomy reflects IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information, IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures and their accompanying guidance.
The Taxonomy has been developed to help support dialogue between companies and investors and it neither introduces new requirements nor affects a company’s compliance with the Standards. Informed by market feedback, the Taxonomy enables companies to consistently tag information prepared using ISSB Standards.
Designed to be consistent with the IFRS Accounting Taxonomy so that companies can provide a holistic digital financial reporting package to investors, the ISSB Taxonomy can also be used with other digital taxonomies.
ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber said:
“As jurisdictions around the world are considering the adoption or other use of ISSB Standards, the publication of the ISSB Taxonomy only a few months after the effective date of our inaugural Standards is critical to support capital market transparency and efficiency and enable companies and investors to digitally process sustainability-related financial disclosures provided through use of the ISSB Standards
"Furthermore, we have taken steps to ensure the ISSB Taxonomy can help facilitate interoperability with other taxonomies when necessary—for example, to facilitate interoperability with the taxonomy being developed by EFRAG—enabling all companies and investors to immediately more effectively identify disclosures required by the ISSB."
In May, the IFRS Foundation will publish a webcast that explains the role of the ISSB Taxonomy and its benefits.