In its comment letter, GRI agrees with the assessment of the IFRS Trustees that demand for reporting on sustainability is growing, and that a global solution has to reflect the needs of the companies preparing sustainability reports together with the information needs of their stakeholders, including investors, as well as the information needs of the jurisdictions they operate in.

GRI also notes that not only is a global solution needed, sustainability reporting should also become mandatory to truly contribute to better decision-making. The comment letter also states that financial reporting itself must be strengthened to reflect the financial implications of sustainability issues on the reporting entity. Enhanced financial reporting would then exist alongside sustainability reporting. Under such a regime, GRI believes, financial reporting will be able to leverage the information made available through sustainability reporting so as to fully reflect the financial implications of all impacts of corporate activities.

GRI also comments on the role of the IFRS Foundation:

The IFRS Foundation is in a position to support the further evolution of the existing public interest oversight mechanism to become inclusive of sustainability reporting, thereby allowing even more jurisdictions that have mandated a global solution for financial reporting to do the same for sustainability reporting.

Please click to access the full comment letter through the press release on the GRI website.

GRI also offers two webinars on its response to the consultation: On 17 December 2020, at 9:00 GMT and at 17:00 GMT (links are to registration pages).)