UNEP FI organized a panel discussion, in the context of the virtual event entitled ‘Regional Round Table on Sustainable Finance for Europe,’ which took place on November 10 and 11, in which a group of experts shared their insights into everything that still needs to be done with regard to measuring and managing sustainability impacts and the actions that need to be implemented.
The establishment of the ISSB (International Sustainability Standard Board) announced in the framework of the recent COP26 and the pending work to define a global reporting standard for sustainability-related matters, represent two significant steps towards a much needed convergence at a global level. However, the standard, which will initially focus on climate-related information, will essentially focus on the returns yielded by sustainability in terms of company value and not so much on businesses’ impact on their communities or the environment.
Antoni Ballabriga, global director of Responsible Business at BBVA and co-chairman of UNEP FI, detailed BBVA’s view as a bank regarding the management of sustainability impacts from its standpoint as a bank. For Ballabriga, “we need to incorporate a dual materiality vision in the information reported by businesses to the market, as proposed by the EU.” Regarding climate change, “for financial institutions it is important to gauge how it affects businesses from a financial standpoint, but also to understand businesses’ impact on climate change in terms of emissions and decarbonization plans.”
The ISSB will incorporate sustainability impact metrics in as far as they are material for the financial value of businesses, but one of the major challenges is the lack of a global reference framework. “Despite there being multiple initiatives, frameworks, standards and guidance tools to measure impact, it is urgent to build a global system to establish a universal language that facilitates companies’ work,” said BBVA’s Global Head of Responsible Business. “We really need to converge to foster data consistency, comparability and quality,” stressed Ballabriga.
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