Sustainable investment has become a hot topic over the last decade. As an investment consideration, it is high on most, if not all, investors' concerns. However, reporting on sustainability performance has been an evolving process. Furthermore, despite growing requirements for self-reporting, there is a lack of standardisation around what should be included in companies' reports, leading to inconsistencies in how investments appear compared to their actual sustainability performance.
This disconnect, intentional or not, is leading to increasing scepticism in the marketplace, with terms such as "greenwashing" becoming common parlance.
One of the key announcements to come out of COP27 was that CDP, the world's biggest disclosure platform, is to incorporate the ISSB standard into its global environmental disclosure platform, making this a major step towards delivering a comprehensive global baseline for capital markets through the adoption of ISSB standards.
In our most recent whitepaper – 'ISSB standards – the end of greenwashing?' – we explore in more detail the need for standardised reporting, the proposed ISSB standards, and our view on some of the specific reporting standards we would expect to consider when looking at the transport infrastructure industry.