New Standard-Setting Body for Climate Change Disclosures Announced at Glasgow Climate Change Conference

The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, the non-profit foundation that oversees the International Accounting Standards Board, has announced the creation of the "International Sustainability Standards Board," which is intended to "craft climate-disclosure rules for companies as investors push for more standardized information."

Numerous countries--although not the United States--typically incorporate the recommendations and standards devised by these international bodies into their own regulations.  And, even those authorities that do not incorporate these recommendations typically rely on these standards as a reference point when drafting their own regulations. 

Although the International Sustainability Standards Board has not yet published any climate-disclosure rules--the earliest these are expected is in the first half of 2022--the formation of this new body demonstrates the increasing global momentum towards requiring climate change financial disclosures and the accompanying desire for uniform reporting standards to ease the comprehensibility and aid comparative analysis of the information disclosed.