The Capacity Building Seminar on Sustainability Disclosure was held on 16 April in Astana to support the implementation of new international sustainability disclosure standards and practices in Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian region.
It was organised by the AIFC Green Finance Centre in partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the OECD through the Water, Energy, Land-use Nexus project, along with the Capacity-building Alliance of Sustainable Investment (CASI), and EY.
The seminar brought together over 120 in-person and online participants, including representatives from Central Asian financial institutions, businesses and international partners. The event provided a platform for sharing good practices of sustainability disclosure, discussing exemplary case-studies, and delivering in-depth training on preparing sustainability reports.
The OECD presentation, building on its work on nature-related financial risks, emphasised the importance of:
- Support for financial institutions in assessing nature-related financial risks emerged as an important priority
- Further cooperation between Central Asian financial institutions and their regional and development partners, including the Nexus project, in enhancing knowledge exchange
- Building on the momentum for the introduction of the new IFRS sustainability reporting guidance, including key climate-related disclosure
The seminar was significant as an attempt to support governments and businesses to understand and adopt the new international sustainability disclosure standards and practices, promoting better-informed and more robust management of sustainability-related risks. Going forward, international cooperation with Central Asian financial organisations, including the AIFC, should be strengthened to facilitate the green transition in finance in the region.