The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) does not target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but ensures that they are included in the value chain, stressed ISSB Chairman Emmanuel Faber at a hearing of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) on Monday 2 September.
Questioned by MEP Markus Ferber (EPP, Germany), Mr Faber added that the ISSB was not looking for SMEs to adopt sustainability reporting standards or for regulators to ask them to do so. “That’s why, from day one, we set up a specific organisation within the ISSB and the IFRS Foundation, which deals with capacity building, education and training, but also technology as a lever to collect data without suppliers or small entities having to worry about it”, he explained.
He pointed out that a number of initiatives are being taken in this direction, notably in Africa, South-East Asia and China.
For his part, MEP Eero Heinäluoma (S&D, Finnish) asked questions about the role of auditors and interoperability between IFRS and European ESRS standards (see EUROPE 13466/17). On the first point, it was Erkki Liikanen, Chairman of the Board of the IFRS Foundation, who responded, pointing out that the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) is about to adopt new standards for auditors this autumn (see EUROPE 13264/25). “Auditors need to extend their expertise in this area”, said Mr Liikanen. He also stressed that this change would require both public and private funding.
Finally, with regard to interoperability, Mr Faber highlighted the fact that the timetable had changed and that circumstances were different from those that prevailed when the ESRS standards were drawn up. “There is an opportunity now overall to start from the baseline for sector standards for instance and to add and build from that, so that we optimise the volume or the proportion of global standards that are based on the baseline of the ISSB”, was his defence. In his view, this would enable “more direct interoperability as opposed to ex-post work to connect the standards together”. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)