By Bianca Sampaio
Social Communication
The Latin American Group of Issuers of Financial Information Standards (Glenif) held, last Tuesday (29), the webinar entitled “Understand the impacts of IFRS on Sustainability in Latin America”.
The seminar was broadcast live on Glenif’s YouTube channel and was attended by experts in sustainability and finance. There were more than 1,200 views on the platform, and around 850 entries.
The event was opened and moderated by the President of Glenif, José Luiz R. Carvalho, who highlighted the importance of the debate on the application of standards in Latin America. José Luiz emphasized that it is necessary to increase disclosures regarding the implementation of regulations and standards, in each of the jurisdictions, which brings greater transparency, knowledge, comparability of information and, therefore, business opportunities.
Then, the IFRS Foundation Ibero-American Relations manager, Arturo Rodríguez, explained how the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) operates and also addressed the definitions of the IFRS S1 and S2 standards.
Rodríguez brought general concepts about norms and climate issues. He pointed out that “information is material if its omission, misrepresentation or concealment could reasonably influence the decisions taken by investors”. He also highlighted that the definition of materiality facilitates understanding by the accounting and sustainability team, so that they have the same language, and allows them to work under the same definition.
Arturo spoke about the four pillars (governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and objectives) that structure the S1 and S2 standards. “The three initial pillars (governance, strategy and risk management) are qualitative pillars, since disclosure is qualitative. The fourth pillar is different in that it focuses specifically on metrics and objectives, meaning disclosure is quantitative,” he explained.
These pillars help convey a generic understanding, to specify it; that is, they indicate how an organization incorporates strategic issues into its operations, how it manages operational risks and opportunities, and finally, how it provides concrete and quantitative data on these different topics.
Next, the director of Glenif for the Mexican Council on Financial Information Standards, Elsa Beatriz García Bojorges, spoke about the S1 and S2 standards, in relation to connectivity with financial information, risks and opportunities related to sustainability.
She highlighted that, currently, sustainability topics allow analyzing and obtaining information from the environment and inferring whether it is possible to find some organizations that, before an imminent risk, in some relevant situation, carry out the analysis and conclude that it cannot be a concern anymore. constant.
“A sustainable organization is one that, in its view of the future, sees no limitations to continue with a constant concern, if the conclusion is that the company cannot change, cannot renew itself and find a line that allows the continuity of its activities .” So, accounting evaluations would have to understand, in the sense of punishing some assets, or using some net realization values.
Elsa stated that the sustainability report is a tool that will promote actions that will help practice and protect the environment and envisage inclusive social development and, in general terms, a global sustainable environment.
The Glenif representative at the Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum (SSAF), Rocío Garrido, spoke about the work in the Latin American region for the implementation of the standards. He explained the representation of Latin America within the SSAF, which is a global consultation participation group, in which all countries and all regions that work with the IFRS are represented, and whose objective is to contribute to the dissemination of issues of sustainability, developing norms and their applicability in Latin American countries.
Garrido explained how Latin America can implement the new standards at the regional level, but also at the national level and from different geographies represented by the countries participating in Glenif, offering training, panel discussions on challenges of local regulatory considerations.
Rocío emphasized that the standards have been well received globally and that they are working to ensure that the published standards are understood and are implemented and applied equally in all jurisdictions. She stated that the challenges for Latin America are many and different from other geographies and regions, but, when there is communication and joint actions, there is an exponential advance compared to other regions.
The coordinator of Glenif’s Permanent Sustainability Commission (CPS), Laura Graciela Accifonte, highlighted the impacts of S1 and S2 standards
“The three initial pillars (governance, strategy and risk management) are qualitative pillars, since disclosure is qualitative. The fourth pillar is different in that it focuses specifically on metrics and objectives, meaning disclosure is quantitative,” he explained.
These pillars help convey a generic understanding, to specify it; that is, they indicate how an organization incorporates strategic issues into its operations, how it manages operational risks and opportunities, and finally, how it provides concrete and quantitative data on these different topics.
Next, the director of Glenif for the Mexican Council on Financial Information Standards, Elsa Beatriz García Bojorges, spoke about the S1 and S2 standards, in relation to connectivity with financial information, risks and opportunities related to sustainability.
She highlighted that, currently, sustainability topics allow analyzing and obtaining information from the environment and inferring whether it is possible to find some organizations that, before an imminent risk, in some relevant situation, carry out the analysis and conclude that it cannot be a concern anymore. constant.
“A sustainable organization is one that, in its view of the future, sees no limitations to continue with a constant concern, if the conclusion is that the company cannot change, cannot renew itself and find a line that allows the continuity of its activities .” So, accounting evaluations would have to understand, in the sense of punishing some assets, or using some net realization values.
Elsa stated that the sustainability report is a tool that will promote actions that will help practice and protect the environment and envisage inclusive social development and, in general terms, a global sustainable environment.
The Glenif representative at the Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum (SSAF), Rocío Garrido, spoke about the work in the Latin American region for the implementation of the standards. He explained the representation of Latin America within the SSAF, which is a global consultation participation group, in which all countries and all regions that work with the IFRS are represented, and whose objective is to contribute to the dissemination of issues of sustainability, developing norms and their applicability in Latin American countries.
Garrido explained how Latin America can implement the new standards at the regional level, but also at the national level and from different geographies represented by the countries participating in Glenif, offering training, panel discussions on challenges of local regulatory considerations.
Rocío emphasized that the standards have been well received globally and that they are working to ensure that the published standards are understood and are implemented and applied equally in all jurisdictions. She stated that the challenges for Latin America are many and different from other geographies and regions, but, when there is communication and joint actions, there is an exponential advance compared to other regions.
The coordinator of Glenif’s Permanent Sustainability Commission (CPS), Laura Graciela Accifonte, highlighted the impacts of S1 and S2 standards in Latin America and highlighted the commission’s actions.
Shortly after, Arturo Rodrigues informed that consultations on standards are open to any global organization that wants to give their perspective and that it is always important to have Latin American voices in international standards processes, which are participatory and very transparent.
The moderator, José Luiz, ended by highlighting that this is the first Glenif webinar and that several others will be presented to bring more information on this topic to Latin American countries.