ISSB’s next steps on biodiversity and human capital

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has said that it will commence projects to research disclosure about risks and opportunities associated with:

• biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services; and
• human capital.

The research projects will focus on the common information needs of investors in assessing whether and how these risks and opportunities could reasonably be expected to affect a company’s prospects. 

The ISSB will look at how it might build from relevant pre-existing initiatives, including the SASB standards, CDSB guidance and the work of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).  

The research projects will enable the ISSB to assess the limitations with current disclosure in these areas and decide whether it needs to develop any ISSB standards on these two topics. 

The ISSB has indicated that its priority for the next two years will be supporting the implementation of the ISSB’s first two standards - IFRS S1 and IFRS S2. The two new research projects, as well as work to enhance the SASB standards, will be the ISSB’s other key focus areas. 

For more information on the:

• ISSB's announcement, see the ISSB press release;
• ISSB’s first two sustainability disclosure standards, see our previous blog post; 
• TNFD recommendations on nature-related disclosures, see our previous blog post.