South Africa takes the lead on digital sustainability disclosures
Issuers in South Africa can now use the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy (also called the ISSB taxonomy) to report sustainability data digitally. This makes South Africa’s Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) the first regulator in the world – we believe – to allow the use of the taxonomy.
The CIPC has just released its updated iXBRL Taxonomy, incorporating the latest amendments in the IFRS Accounting Taxonomy 2024, as published by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) in March 2024. This change replaces the IFRS 2023 taxonomy elements (and corresponding structures), and applies to the CIPC’s Co-ops, GRAP, and IFRS taxonomy modules.
Crucially, the update also includes modular entry points for the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Taxonomy 2024. This enables voluntary early adopters of the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) inaugural standards, IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, to digitally tag their sustainability disclosures.
It’s great to see the CIPC leading the way, integrating the ISSB taxonomy into its disclosure framework. It is anticipated that mandatory digital sustainability reporting using the ISSB standards will follow in South Africa in due course. This is likely to be a relatively smooth process for forward-looking South African issuers, building as it does on existing sustainability disclosure approaches based in the TCFD guidelines.
The final 2024 taxonomy was released on 1 October and is available on the CIPC website for public use.
You can access the updated CIPC taxonomy here.
