The VRF supports business and investor decision-making with three key resources:

• Integrated Thinking Principles,
• Integrated Reporting Framework, and
• SASB Standards.

These tools are intended to enable organizations to move from buy-in to action. By more closely aligning the Integrated Reporting Framework and the SASB Standards, the VRF will make it easier for businesses to communicate their long-term strategy and provide a more comprehensive view of business performance to investors and other providers of capital.

The VRF is also committed to the delivery of a more coherent corporate reporting system by working closely with the IFRS Foundation and other leading framework providers and standard-setters around the world.

Review the press release and the new VRF website for more information and a list of statements from business leaders.

The second webinar will explore in more detail the proposed new approach to developing disclosure requirements in IFRS Standards and will include a discussion of the Board’s views on comparability, enforceability and electronic reporting.

For the convenience of participants from different time zones, there will be two sessions of the webinar both discussing the same topics:

• Thursday 17 June 2021, 09:00–10:00 BST and
• Thursday 17 June 2021, 15:00–16:00 BST.

Each session will include a moderated question-and-answer session.

Review the press release on the IASB’s website.

The introduction to the consultation notes that when the Task Force issued its final recommendations, "it was aware of the limitations of reporting certain metrics as well as the nascency of climate-related reporting at the time, and anticipated that metric disclosure would evolve as climate-related financial reporting matured". The developments especially noted are around global standard convergence:

• The “Group of Five” (CDP, CDSB, GRI, IIRC, SASB) and their prototype climate-related financial disclosure standard;
• the announcements of the IFRS Foundation Trustees regarding a possible International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), their strategic direction, and the formation of a working group; and
• the IOSCO announcements welcoming the IFRS Foundation initiative and announcing plans to work with the IFRS Foundation as well as noting strong support for this work coming out of its stakeholder groups.

In response to these developments, progress around certain metrics and newly identified areas warranting additional guidance, the TCFD has developed its Proposed Guidance on Climate-related Metrics, Targets, and Transition Plans to serve two purposes:

• to provide general guidance for organizations seeking to establish relevant metrics, targets, and transition plans around their climate-related risks and opportunities, and
• to propose specific changes to the guidance for all sectors and supplemental guidance in the 2017 final report and in the guidance on implementing the recommendations.

Comments on the proposed guidance, which comes with an associated Measuring Portfolio Alignment: Technical Supplement, are requested by July 7, 2021.

The Task Force will take the consultation responses into consideration when releasing final guidance in the fall of 2021.

Review both documents on the TCFD's website.

The Eminent Persons Group is chaired by Jean-Claude Trichet, former President of the European Central Bank. Additional members are Sheila Bair, former Chair of the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Nandan Nilekani, Chair and co-founder of Infosys, Guillermo Ortiz, former Governor of Banco de Mexico and former Chair of the Bank of International Settlements, and Min Zhu, former Deputy Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. The group has held its first meeting and will have regular engagement with the Trustees.

The Trustees now have four groups they work with in the context of their sustainability initiative:

• The Trustees’ Steering Committee provides strategic direction and project oversight and makes recommendations on key decisions for endorsement by all Trustees.
• The Eminent Persons Group provides strategic advice and counsel to the Trustees.
• The Technical Readiness Working Group is working on providing the ISSB with a ‘running start’.
• The Multilateral Working Group does preparatory work for a building-blocks approach and facilitates interaction with other international/jurisdictional initiatives.

Review the press release on the IASB's website.

As part of the launch, two publications have been published on the TNFD website:

• NATURE IN SCOPE: A summary of the proposed scope, governance, work plan, communication and resourcing plan for the TNFD
• Proposed Technical Scope Recommendations for the TNFD

Review the press release on the TNFD website announcing the launch as well as a letter by the two newly appointed Co-Chairs.

Listen to the recording of the presentations and access the slide decks on the IASB website.

In the final communiqué, the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors emphasize the need to green the global financial system so that financial decisions take climate considerations into account as this would help mobilize the trillions of dollars of private sector finance needed, and reinforce government policy to meet their net zero commitments. The communiqué notes:

We support moving towards mandatory climate-related financial disclosures that provide consistent and decision-useful information for market participants and that are based on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework, in line with domestic regulatory frameworks. Investors need high quality, comparable and reliable information on climate risks. We therefore agree on the need for a baseline global reporting standard for sustainability, which jurisdictions can further supplement. We welcome the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation’s programme of work to develop this baseline standard under robust governance and public oversight, built from the TCFD framework and the work of sustainability standard-setters, involving them and a wider range of stakeholders closely to foster global best practice and accelerate convergence. We encourage further consultation on a final proposal leading to the establishment of an International Sustainability Standards Board ahead of COP26.

Review the full communiqué on the UK government website. In a press release on the IASB website, the Trustees appreciate the support in the G7 communiqué.

For the convenience of participants in different time zones there will be two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Review the press release for more information, registration and submitting questions on the IASB's website.

Next, he commented on the progress done to IFRS Standards to reduce vulnerabilities. Specifically, he mentioned the improvements made by IFRS 9, IFRS 15, and IFRS 17 Standards, the updated conceptual framework, the primary financial statements project, and the new version of the management commentary practice statement.

Further, Mr. Hoogervorst noted the progress in the use of IFRS Standards globally and that there are currently more than 140 jurisdictions that have adopted IFRS Standards.

In closing, Mr. Hoogervorst thanked the Trustees, the IASB Board (past and present), IASB Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd, the technical and operational staff as well as the accounting community for all the contributions to the standard setting process.

In the video recording, upcoming IASB Chair Andreas Barckow provided a brief introduction and thanked Mr. Hoogervorst for all his accomplishments during the past 10 years.

Review the transcript and video of his speech on the IASB’s website.

Although the external audit is only one element within the broader financial reporting ecosystem, the auditor’s role in audits of financial statements continues to receive heightened public attention.

Review the article to learn more about their outreach initiatives and watch a video excerpt on the AASB's website.