• The International Sustainability Standards Board, created on the heels of COP26, sought global input on two exposure drafts related to sustainability-related financial information and climate-related disclosures.

• CIIPA supports including a broader range of information in corporate reporting and welcomed the opportunity to comment on the drafts.

• CIIPA anticipates the completion of the ISSB’s work on the Exposure Drafts and strongly supports these important steps towards a harmonized, global system of sustainability information for investors and global capital markets, addressing enterprise value.

International sustainability disclosure proposals

George Town, Cayman Islands, 1 August 2022

The Cayman Islands Institute of Professional Accountants welcomed the opportunity to comment on a pair of International Sustainability Standards Board exposure drafts. CIIPA submitted its response on Friday, 29 July. 

“We share the vision that the accountancy profession must lead on climate reporting and other material environmental, social and governance disclosures and their assurance,” said CIIPA Chief Executive Officer Sheree Ebanks. “It’s important to contribute to strong and sustainable financial markets and economies and enabling the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.” 

The exposure drafts addressed general requirements for disclosure of sustainability-related financial information and climate-related disclosures. CIIPA supports including a broader range of information in corporate reporting so that organizations can communicate more effectively—and stakeholders can better understand—prospects for longer-term value creation. Insight gained from both financial and sustainability information will lead to better commercial decisions and increased account of value to customers, employees, suppliers, and societal interests.

CIIPA’s comments highlighted five thematic areas CIIPA believes are important to high-quality, decision-useful sustainability-related disclosures: 

• Investor focus: Climate and sustainability-related information enhances investors’ ability to assess company performance, risks, opportunities, and long-term prospects. 

• Alignment: Reporting entities should be able to accurately collect and report information in a manner that effectively serves requirements under globally applicable or jurisdictional requirements. Alignment of key concepts, terminologies, and metrics is imperative to avoiding standard-setting and regulatory fragmentation. 

• Importance of regulation: Climate and sustainability information must be high-quality, decision useful, and trusted.

• Verifiability: To be trusted, climate and sustainability information should be subject to high-quality, independent, external assurance, based on high-quality assurance and ethics standards.

• Interconnected approach: Climate and sustainability disclosures are most valuable to investors and other stakeholders when they are connected to financial reporting information.

Click here to view the full CIIPA response. 

CIIPA would like to thank members of its ESG Committee as well as its Public Practice Committee for contributing to the comment letter. CIIPA supports the mission and activities of the ISSB and stands ready to assist the Board and IFRS Foundation Trustees in any way it can.