The decision to start work on sustainability standards specifically for the public sector comes in response to stakeholder demand, including from the World Bank.

Earlier this year, the World Bank called for more action to focus on sustainability reporting, stating that ‘sustainability reporting can play a central role in driving capital to sustainable investments and away from environmentally harmful ones.  Progress has been made on corporate climate and nature reporting, but a significant information gap remains for sovereign entities, whose capital-raising activities are not presently considered in existing climate- and nature-related disclosure frameworks’.

International sustainability reporting frameworks under development do not cover public sector investments, issuance of sovereign and sub-sovereign bonds, investments of public pension funds, or international development finance.