Good news for companies required to report under CSRD and other IFRS-aligned jurisdictions – the IFRS and EFRAG recently published Interoperability Guidance to make reporting less duplicative and burdensome. The guidance document clarifies areas where the ISSB standards and the ESRS standards overlap, making it easier to report under both. In a joint press release discussing the guidance the organizations stated:
“The document has been designed to reduce complexity, fragmentation and duplication for companies applying both the ISSB Standards and ESRS. As companies around the world are increasingly mandated to disclose sustainability-related information through the ISSB Standards and ESRS, EFRAG and the ISSB are committed to creating efficiencies where possible to advance transparency, comparability and . Companies utilising this guidance will be better able to collect, govern and control decision-useful data once.”
The guidance document further clarifies that the definition of financial materiality under the ESRS is aligned with the definition of materiality in IFRS S1. This document does not constitute a merging of the two standards, which remain very different. It is only useful insofar as the standards do overlap in some areas – but generally, the ESRS for reporting under the CSRD are much broader than those used in IFRS-aligned reporting schemes. The guidance contains information for both those starting with the ESRS and seeking to comply with the IFRS and vice versa. While the guidance may not reduce the amount of data required under each disclosure framework, it at least ensures that those data are compatible with each framework’s requirements which should make sustainability professional’s jobs a little easier.
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