Global Biodiversity Reporting Standard May Rely on Outside Rules

Environmental, social, and governance standard setters said Wednesday they might write truncated rules for biodiversity reporting, or even rely on existing voluntary rules rather than write a comprehensive new global sustainability reporting standard.

The International Sustainability Standards Board was discussing where to go with a project to write a new standard covering biodiversity. The board published its first two sets of rules, covering corporate climate and general sustainability reporting, in 2023.

A staff paper for Wednesday’s meeting said that many areas of biodiversity were already covered by entities such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, a US body that writes ...