INTHEBLACK June 2022 - Magazine - Page 24
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volent
ESG Reporting
Whitelanderum
Paper 2021
accaerecto
at how the information is presented outside
of the financial statements to ensure that the
narrative is consistent with the performance of
the organisation financially. We’d have similar
conversations with organisations regarding
sustainability performance.”
The newly formed International Sustainability
Standards Board (ISSB) also aims to deliver a
comprehensive global baseline of sustainabilityrelated disclosure standards to help investors
and other capital market participants make
more informed decisions.
“With ISSB accounting standards, you’d not
only to have to integrate ESG reporting with
financial reporting information, but you’d also
have to talk about ESG data governance, and
that has to be at the same level as financial
data governance,” says Jeyaretnam. “I think a
new challenge for organisations will be how
they manage this, outside of things like Excel
spreadsheets.”
THE ESG CHALLENGE FOR ACCOUNTANTS
Integration across ESG and financial disclosures
is one of the factors currently reshaping corporate
reporting. Lam says it may present a greater
challenge for smaller companies with fewer
24 ITB June 2022
“ESG encompasses
many areas, such as
human rights, climate
change and social
impact, but when we
are assessing
materiality, we look at
how these factors
impact
the financial
performance.”
FELIX LAM CPA, JP MORGAN
ASSET MANAGEMENT
resources, and he recommends focusing on the
materiality of ESG.
“ESG encompasses many areas, such as human
rights, climate change and social impact, but when
we are assessing materiality, we look at how these
factors impact the financial performance,” says
Lam, who is a member of CPA Australia’s ESG
Centre of Excellence.
“ISSB will hopefully help to bring a more
united framework and ideally a reporting standard
to certain material issues, particularly around
climate change. I think this will help accountants
to understand how they can integrate both
financial materiality and ESG materiality.”
Since 2020, several regulations on disclosure
of ESG information have been announced by
financial regulatory bodies in Mainland China.
Dr Ruoyu Weng, director at China’s Xiamen
National Accounting Institute, says the regulations
are a positive signal of mandatory ESG disclosure
and that relevant accounting skills may require
further development.
“As a comparatively new concept, ESG needs
both applied research at the technical level and
theoretical construction to ensure its sustainable
development in China,” says Weng, a contributor
to the ESG Reporting White Paper 2021,