Singapore Companies ask to Delay Mandatory Climate Reporting for Smaller Businesses – ESG Today

The Singapore Enterprise Federation (SBF), Singapore’s key enterprise affiliation representing over 32,000 firms, introduced the discharge of a press release immediately, asking regulators to delay climate-related disclosure necessities for smaller firms, set to start from this 12 months, by one to 2 years, to provide companies extra time to organize.

The assertion follows the announcement early final 12 months by the federal government of Singapore that it’ll implement necessary climate-related reporting necessities for listed and huge non-listed firms. Alongside the federal government’s announcement, markets regulator SGX RegCo launched necessities for SGX-listed issuers to start submitting annual climate-related disclosures aligned with the requirements issued by the IFRS Basis’s Worldwide Sustainability Requirements Board (ISSB), beginning with FY2025.

With the deadline to start IFRS-based local weather reporting approaching, the SBF mentioned that it carried out a survey and engaged 40 small- and mid-cap firms in a roundtable, to evaluate their degree of preparedness.

In line with the outcomes, the SBF mentioned that whereas all firms had been within the strategy of making ready for the brand new disclosures, solely 4% mentioned that they had been “very assured” of their means to fulfill the present timeline, with firms citing challenges together with an incomplete understanding of disclosure necessities, lack of time and sources to construct inner capabilities, and necessities to arrange strong information assortment processes.

The SBF added that greater than 90% of firms mentioned that extending the timeline could be helpful in enabling them to supply top quality ISSB stories. Small- and mid-cap firms account for 84% of listings on the SGX.

Along with the request for a one to 2 12 months delay, the SBF assertion features a sequence of suggestions, together with a name to make climate-related disclosure necessities proportionate to the dimensions and sources of small- and mid-cap firms. Whereas noting that the ISSB requirements incorporate proportionality mechanisms, the SBF mentioned that these might not be nicely understood by firms, and that extra may be performed to extend consciousness and purposes of those mechanisms for smaller firms. The SBF additionally requested that firms be supplied with cross-sector and sector-specific steerage to assist scale back compliance burdens in areas comparable to local weather situations, which require vital analysis efforts that could be duplicative throughout firms.

Moreover, the SBF advisable the institution of a central platform for digital reporting of climate-related disclosures, enabling sustainability info to be obtainable in a standardized format to permit for national- and sector-level benchmarking, much like SGX’s Inventory Screener for monetary information.

Mr Kok Ping Quickly, Chief Govt Officer of SBF, mentioned:

“SBF recognises the worth of firms making ISSB-based climate-related disclosure.  Doing so compels firms to formulate, talk and implement methods and processes to boost their resilience in opposition to local weather dangers and to grab alternatives in our transition in direction of a low-carbon future. It’s encouraging that small- and mid-cap ListCos have began making ready for these disclosures, although many proceed to face sensible obstacles — together with technique (e.g. incomplete understanding of disclosure necessities) and manpower (e.g. lack of time and sources to construct inner capabilities).”