Some are disappointed with the new ISSB standards

Here’s a note from Zsolt Lengyel:

ISSB’s monopolization and distortion of the sustainability and climate crisis landscape continues as they claim that with their inaugural standards’ “for the first time, the Standards create a common language for 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲’𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬.”

Let’s note that the IFRS Foundation / International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) with its 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲, 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫-𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 does and will NOT facilitate any meaningful corporate transition towards sustainability and/or climate neutrality . The ISSB will only provide for complacency and ‘illusion of progress’. Those celebrating the ‘inaugural standards’ better spend 15 minutes with Kevin Anderson advocating bold policy changes, replacing 30 years of rhetoric, optimism and greenwashing with which we haven’t bent the emissions curve (neither prepared for the already baked-in climate change through resilience and adaptation). If you have not listened to him in Glastonbury over the weekend, here he comes on YouTube.

From a future perspective those accepting the ISSB climate disclosure standards as sufficient and progressive will be similar to those appeasing Hitler’s territorial demands prior to WWII: they will pave the way for climate Armageddon; by applying the same bizarrely shortsighted ‘investor only’-lens to other planetary boundaries and social minimums they will only accelerate the human predicament.

So what do we need to replace the ISSB? We need “𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭-𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 (𝐂𝐁𝐒) – also known as Context-Based Accounting – is an open-source, multi/triple bottom line, integrated accounting methodology for measuring, managing, assessing and reporting the performance of organizations (and other human social systems) relative to upper and lower limits in, and demands for, vital resources or capitals in the world.”

To get a good grasp of it follow Mark W. McElroy, PhD, Bill Baue, Ralph Thurm and others working on the “SDPI Scorecard”, a multi-bottom-line, integrated reporting solution pre-populated with 16 context-based indicators taken from the United Nations Sustainable Development Performance Indicators (SDPI) framework, launched last November by UNRISD. See here for the report, “Authentic Sustainability Assessment”, released by UNRISD at the same time.