Climate change affects everyone, transcending borders and economic boundaries. Mitigating its impacts requires a global, coordinated response involving public and private sector entities as well as individuals. Achieving this will require cross-cutting action and public sector leadership to use their policy-making and regulatory powers to ensure continued financial sustainability and provision of services for all citizens.  

However, significant resources and substantial investments are needed to address climate and the transition to a low-carbon future. Public sector finances are stretched and strained more than ever, therefore public sector finances alone will not provide the resources needed to address this challenge.  

Capital markets play a vital role in public sector financing and will be needed to help fill the funding gap—but investors need reliable information to do so. To maintain access to and unlock new funding sources, governments will need to provide robust climate-related information. However, there is currently no international public sector standard for climate-relate disclosures, which limits the ability for public sector entities to report in a comparable and reliable way that capital market participants expect. 

To fill this gap, the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB®) is developing the world’s first climate-related disclosure standard for public sector entities, with support from The World Bank. The draft standard, IPSASB SRS™ ED 1, Climate-related Disclosures, builds on the ISSB’s global baseline but includes guidance specific to the public sector. This consistency in language and principles with ISSB’s global baseline will provide investors with consistent information across private and public sectors to ensure capital markets operate efficiently and effectively and enable governments to secure the resources needed to drive meaningful change. 

The IPSASB SRS ED 1 also introduces public sector specific disclosure requirements for reporting on climate-related public policy programs and their outcomes. These disclosures will provide information to help investors and other public sector users, such as citizens, to hold governments accountable – ensuring efficient and effective management of resources and delivery of services to support climate mitigation, transition, and adaptation efforts.  

The proposed standard is open for public comment until February 28, 2025, and the IPSASB invites feedback from all interested stakeholders. Your input will help shape the final standard, expected in late 2025. 

This article was originally published at kontroll og revisjon.