Corporate Reporting Dialogue calls for market feedback on aligning disclosure frameworks

The big corporate reporting initiatives and frameworks are joining forces to call for feedback from the market on how they could better align.
CDP, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) are launching a consultation via the Corporate Reporting Dialogue, through which they coordinate their efforts globally.
For six weeks, starting next Wednesday (20 March), market participants are being asked for their views on “how to drive better alignment of sustainability reporting frameworks, as well as with frameworks that promote integration between non-financial and financial reporting”.
Investors, corporates, data providers and others are invited to attend webinars featuring speakers from HSBC, AkzoNobel and the PRI, where the consultation process will be explained and there will be discussion on the corporate reporting landscape – including the recommendations from the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. There will also be roundtables held in various locations to gather feedback.“Participants will be invited to share their views on how to drive effective corporate reporting, ensuring that the work of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue remains grounded in the needs of the market,” said a statement.
The consultation will be open until 1 May. After that, an initial report will be produced in September, “showing the linkages of the TCFD recommendations with the respective frameworks and the linkages between the frameworks”.
The Corporate Reporting Dialogue, which is also backed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, the International Standards Organisation and the International Accounting Standards Board, launched the Better Alignment Project in November. The project has funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies to work for two years on harmonising the reporting initiatives.
“We have heard and share the market’s concern about the fragmented reporting landscape and we are committed to do something about it,” Mardi McBrien, CDSB Managing Director, told RI at the time, while IIRC’s CEO Richard Howitt called the slew of initiatives an “alphabet soup” in which “businesses are choking”.