编者按：工商业界职业会计师委员会最近发布了题为《投资者对环境、社会及治理披露的要求：对工商业界职业会计师的影响》的报告，阐释了投资者对使用环境、社会及治理（ESG）信息的要求及其趋势，建议职业会计师更好地支持其所在组织应对这些要求，并最终改善环境、社会及治理信息方面的管理和报告。现将相关公告全文予以发布，以供参考。

The Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has published Investor Demand for Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosures: Implications for Professional Accountants in Business. The report considers trends in investor demand for and use of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information, and recommends how professional accountants can better support their organizations in responding to these demands, and ultimately improve the management and reporting of ESG performance.

The report highlights an evolving trend toward greater interest in ESG factors, and integration of these factors and ESG performance information into investment processes and decisions. It also reviews investor approaches to acquire information on ESG factors, including positive and negative screening, engagement, and ESG integration. To alert professional accountants to essential ESG metrics and indicators sought by investors, the report provides a sector-neutral list of core performance indicators most frequently used by investors to evaluate ESG performance, and a review of how investors might consider the financial implications and monetization of these factors.

“As professional accountants both support and fill leadership roles in management operations and control, as well as stakeholder communications, they are well placed to apply accounting discipline and rigor to the collection, analysis, and reporting of ESG data, and to support the incorporation of ESG factors into their organization’s management processes, systems, and reporting,” said Roger Tabor, chair of the PAIB Committee. “Their involvement in improving the relevance and quality of their organization’s internal and external business reporting will be critical to meet the challenge of increasing the use of ESG information.”

In response to the challenges of ESG integration, the report recommends five actions for the accountancy profession and professional accountants in business:

·    engage investors effectively to understand their information needs and communicate performance;

·    incorporate ESG factors and non-financial performance information into governance and accountability arrangements to improve information and disclosure quality;

·    link financial and non-financial performance and outcomes to improve understanding of sustainable value creation;

·    ensure that ESG disclosures meet investor needs by being material, timely, consistent, and comparable in order to improve usefulness of reporting and greater transparency; and

·    bring together data that may be dispersed in different parts of the organization or its supply chain to supportinternal and external decision making.