The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) published its digital sustainability taxonomy Tuesday in an effort to get more investors using its new climate disclosure standards.
The digital taxonomy will enable investors and others to search, extract and compare sustainability-related financial disclosures made in accordance with the ISSB’s new global standards, the organization said.
Among other things, the taxonomy includes elements that allow companies to tag information about sustainability-related risks and opportunities in financial reports.
“Tagging makes the information computer-readable, enabling investors to extract, compare and analyze it more efficiently,” the ISSB noted.
The standards setting group said the taxonomy “has been developed to help support dialogue between companies and investors.”
“As jurisdictions around the world are considering the adoption or other use of ISSB standards, the publication of the ISSB taxonomy only a few months after the effective date of our inaugural standards is critical to support capital market transparency and efficiency and enable companies and investors to digitally process sustainability-related financial disclosures provided through use of the ISSB standards,” said ISSB chair Emmanuel Faber in a release.
The ISSB taxonomy was also developed to work alongside other financial reporting taxonomies, “enabling all companies and investors to immediately more effectively identify disclosures required by the ISSB,” Faber noted.