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The European Banking Federation welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)’s Request for Information Consultation on Agenda Priorities for its next two-year work plan.
The ISSB work is an important step forward for fostering transparency at a global level. As a next step, the ISSB’s support to the implementation of the existing standards through capacity and capability building efforts will be fundamental. More precisely, we deem important to ensure that the ISSB Standards can be effectively and consistently implemented and applied by entities, and in a way that is interoperable with other sustainability reporting standards, namely the ESRS, in order to minimize reporting burdens, costs, complexity and enhance comparability.
In addition, should the ISSB consider beginning new research and standard-setting projects, we deem that the focus should be on biodiversity, ecosystems, and ecosystem services. Biodiversity is a rapidly emerging area of reporting, with growing regulatory interest expressed by both investors and government entities. Therefore, we welcome the development of a supporting infrastructure for biodiversity reporting, which will be necessary for preparer organizations to make meaningful disclosures that are valuable for investors.