The partnerships coincide with London Climate Action Week.

As part of its partnership with the IFRS Foundation, ICAEW has been recognised as an official Training Partner in the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Training Partner Programme. This enables ICAEW to deliver globally IFRS Foundation-developed training materials that have been subject to the Foundation’s robust due process. The programme combines globally consistent, high-quality sustainability reporting education with the flexibility to incorporate relevant local market considerations.

The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB Standards) facilitate high-quality, comparable disclosure about sustainability-related financial risks and opportunities by companies, information that is important to decision making and capital allocation by investors.

In becoming an approved Training Partner, the Institute is demonstrating its ongoing support for the global implementation of high-quality ISSB Standards which have been adopted or otherwise used across 40 jurisdictions and endorsed for voluntary use by the UK government via the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS). In the UK, clarity to listing rule updates to reflect UK SRS, that are closely aligned to the ISSB Standards, is expected from the Financial Conduct Authority in the second half of the year.

ICAEW has also agreed to a strategic partnership with the UN SSE to support their ongoing work, initially focused on advancing sustainability reporting by working with the world’s stock exchanges as key capacity building partners, tailored to the accountancy profession.

Alan Vallance, ICAEW Chief Executive, said:

“Announcing these strategic partnerships during London Climate Action Week reflects ICAEW’s commitment to our members, and the accountancy profession globally, in ensuring sustainability-related financial information serves its strategic purpose: supporting better decision-making, more effective capital allocation, and stronger, more resilient businesses.

“Through our partnerships with the United Nation's Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative and the IFRS Foundation, we are supporting the high-quality, consistent, and proportionate implementation of global sustainability standards in the public interest. This helps to reinforce the relevance of the profession, strengthen trust in corporate reporting, and build resilient competitive economies.

“When applied effectively, ISSB Standards and their local variants, provide companies with a strategic tool to understand and respond to risks and opportunities. These include energy security, infrastructure and supply-chain resilience to extreme weather events, access to limited natural resources, and ability to secure talent. These are financial material business issues, affecting cashflow, financial performance, and long-term value creation.

“By equipping ICAEW chartered accountants to integrate this into financial operations, controls and processes, to improve reporting to investors and other stakeholders and provide trust in that information, ICAEW is helping its members play a central role in driving competitive, resilient businesses, across both developing and emerging economies.”

Dana Day, ICAEW Chief Learning Officer, said:

“Partnerships – like these with IFRS Foundation and the UN SSE – ensure that ICAEW learning offers relevant and timely expertise to our members and global community. This means our professionals continue to deliver value to their clients and organisation in a world of evolving regulations, market expectations and an expanding set of financially material factors, such as extreme weather events.”

In announcing the launch of the ISSB Training Partner Programme, Sue Lloyd, ISSB Vice-Chair said:

“The IFRS Foundation is committed to supporting the understanding and high-quality application of ISSB Standards. The ISSB Training Partner Programme, which will deliver the ISSB Disclosure Training course, is central to delivering on that commitment.”

Anthony Miller, Chief Coordinator, UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative said:

“We are pleased to partner with ICAEW to create an accountancy focused training programme as part of the SSE Academy’s work to distribute free, high-quality, expert-led, CPD-verified training globally.

“The accountancy profession is an enabler of, and helps to deliver, high quality corporate information to the capital markets, and this strategic partnership demonstrates the important role that organisations like ICAEW can play in helping to build capacity of their members and the accountancy profession more broadly, at a global scale.”

ENDS

Notes to editors: