For global and coordinated sustainability standards

French and German companies deem it crucial that they should be involved in the development of future sustainability reporting standards by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). For this reason, the President of Deutsches Aktieninstitut, Dr Hans-Ulrich Engel, and the Chairman of Association française des entreprises privées (Afep), Laurent Burelle, met today with the ISSB-Chairman, Emmanuel Faber.

As sustainability reporting standard setting is moving apace at both international and EU level, a high-level delegation of Afep and Deutsches Aktieninstitut presented its priorities to the newly established ISSB on how to achieve high-quality disclosures on sustainability issues.

„Sustainability reporting is of great importance for capital market-oriented companies in Germany. Despite the rapid pace of the EU Commission in terms of sustainability transformation, close coordination between the ISSB and the European standard setter EFRAG is needed here. The goal must be to create uniform and globally recognised standards for companies. For this, the ISSB must set the direction so that national and supranational legislators can be guided by the standards," emphasises Dr Hans-Ulrich Engel, President of Deutsches Aktieninstitut.

„Large French companies are global when it comes to their markets, shareholders and investors. They have been engaged for many years in putting responsible business conduct at the heart of their strategies and operations. Today, 80% of Afep members already report climate related metrics and targets as recommended by the TCFD. They welcome the “climate first” approach of the ISSB and support the future global baseline for sustainability reporting," says Laurent Burelle, Chairman of Afep.

Laurent Burelle, Chairman of Afep and Dr Hans-Ulrich Engel, President of Deutsches Aktieninstitut, highlighted the following common positions of their members:

• Globally active German and French companies fully support the development by the ISSB of a comprehensive global baseline of high-quality sustainability disclosure standards to meet international investors’ information needs.
• Companies need to be closely associated to the standard setting process and should be well represented on the ISSB to ensure that the disclosure requirements are applicable by companies, reflect their sustainability performance and avoid unnecessary complexity, both for preparers and users of sustainability information.
• Afep and Deutsches Aktieninstitut call on major jurisdictions to recognise and align with the international standards to be developed by the ISSB to avoid diverging requirements for globally active companies.
• In particular, Afep and Deutsches Aktieninstitut call on the EFRAG and the ISSB to work closely together. The ISSB has to be the global baseline of investor-focused sustainability disclosure standards.