Global accounting body wants more rigour in showing climate impacts

By Huw Jones

LONDON (Reuters) - A global accounting body on Wednesday proposed guidance on how companies can do more to show the impact of climate change on their financial performance, saying standalone disclosures do not give investors the clarity they need.

Norms written by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are applied by listed companies in more than 140 jurisdictions, including the European Union, Canada, Japan and Britain, though the United States has its own rules.

The IASB launched a consultation on Wednesday on proposed guidance for companies to apply the board's existing rules for reporting climate change impacts or other uncertainties in their financial statements.

Regulators have already begun to roll out sustainability disclosures for listed companies, but these are published outside financial statements and audited less rigorously.

The examples aim to show investors how such sustainability disclosures, such as net-zero carbon emissions commitments and plans on how to transition to them, impact a company's financial figures on assets, liabilities, income and expenses.

Investors have said they want to know whether assets will retain their value going forward as climate change impairs them, such as through flood damage.

"They expressed concerns that information about climate-related uncertainties in financial statements was sometimes insufficient or appeared to be inconsistent with information provided outside the financial statements," the IASB said in a statement.

Oil and gas companies already reflect the impact of climate change in notes attached to their financial statements.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Helen Popper)