Latest news with #taxonomy
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
IFRS on-boards new members to ITCG
The IFRS Foundation has revealed six new appointments and two reappointments to the IFRS Taxonomy Consultative Group (ITCG), effective from 1 August 2025. The ITCG serves as an expert advisory body, providing guidance to the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) on their digital taxonomies and related initiatives. The new appointments include Albert Chou (Individual appointment, Asia-Oceania), Mandy Chung (FactSet, Global), Astrid Montagnier (KPMG, Europe), Maria Mora (Individual appointment, Europe), Joey Mathekga (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, South Africa, Africa), and Anand Padmanabhan (IRIS Business Services LLC, Global). The reappointed members are Grace Fatogbe (IQ Strategies, Africa) and Gabje Kim (Korean Financial Supervisory Service, Asia-Oceania). Each appointment is for a term of one to three years, with members eligible for reappointment up to a maximum of six consecutive years. The retiring members are Avinash Chander (Individual appointment, Asia-Oceania), Doug Chow (PortageBay, Global), Christine Tan (FactSet, Americas), Ronald van Langen (KPMG, Europe), Cuma Allan Zwane (Companies and Intellectual Property Commission, South Africa, Africa), and Binh La (Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Asia-Oceania). Recently, The IFRS Foundation Trustees appointed Gary Berchowitz, Claire Dusser, and Usman Hamid as new members of the IFRS Interpretations Committee. The IFRS Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, creates globally accepted standards for accounting and sustainability disclosure. "IFRS on-boards new members to ITCG " was originally created and published by The Accountant, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
European Commission proposes simplifying sustainability taxonomy
This story was originally published on ESG Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily ESG Dive newsletter. The European Commission adopted a proposal last week to simplify the European Union's taxonomy regulation that defines 'sustainable economic activities and investments' by exempting companies from assessing the taxonomy's eligibility and alignment for activities that are 'not financially material to their business.' The proposed simplification would apply to both financial and non-financial institutions, with different definitions of 'non-material' factors proposed for each, according to a July 3 press release. The changes would reduce the number of reported data points by 89% for financial institutions and 64% for non-financial companies. The simplification is designed to relieve some of the administrative burdens that accompany assessing and reporting alignment with the taxonomy 'in line with the principle of proportionality,' according to the July 4 proposal. The European Commission first announced its intention to simplify the bloc's sustainability taxonomy as part of an omnibus package the body adopted in February. That package also included proposals to delay reporting timelines for the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive while legislators work on simplifying the reporting requirements for those regulations. Under the Commission's proposal to simplify the taxonomy, activities for non-financial companies would be considered 'non-material' if they account for less than 10% of a company's total revenue, capital expenditure or operational expenditure, the release said. Non-financial corporations would also be exempt from having to assess their alignment with the taxonomy across their operational expenditures when alignment 'is considered non-material to their business model.' Financial institutions covered by the taxonomy would be exempt from assessing financial asset alignment or eligibility with the law, if the assets 'account for less than 10% of loans and investments financing specific economic activities whose use of proceeds is known,' the Commission said in an FAQ document. Financial institutions would still have to report on those assets separately, but the move is designed to create flexibility and reduce reporting costs, the document said. The revised standards would also give credit institutions the option to not report key performance indicators — including their green asset ratio on stock and flow, financial guarantees, assets under management and fees and commission — 'that capture financial activities and assets that are not material for their business,' the FAQ said. Such KPIs would be considered 'non-material' if the financial activities and assets they capture 'generate less than 10%' of the institution's net turnover. Financial institutions can also opt out of reporting detailed taxonomy information altogether, if they forgo claiming their activities are 'associated with environmentally sustainable activities under the Taxonomy Regulation,' the FAQ said. Financial institutions would be required to issue a statement in their management report to that effect and have until the end of 2027 to make that claim. 'Our measures simplify the application of the EU Taxonomy and strike the right balance between reducing excessive administrative burden for our companies, while keeping our longer-term goals in focus, including the transition to a sustainable economy,' European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union Maria Luís Albuquerque said in the release. The European Union has already adopted the Commission's 'stop the clock' proposal to delay CSRD and CSDDD reporting timelines, following approval from the European Council and European Parliament. The next wave of CSRD reporting companies and the first set of CSDDD reporting companies will now have until 2028 to comply with the laws. The European Commission said the simplification proposal will next be considered by the Council and Parliament for four months, with the option to extend consideration another two months, according to the press release. The simplification measures are expected to go into effect Jan. 1, 2026, and cover the 2025 financial year, but there will also be an option to apply the measures starting with the 2026 financial year 'if [the Council and Parliament] find this more convenient.' Recommended Reading EU legislators work to simplify sustainability reporting requirements Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
RNZ News
07-05-2025
- Science
- RNZ News
Native jumping spider found in restored Rotorua forest
A new species of native jumping spider has been discovered in a Rotorua forest that's been restored by a local tourism company. Photo: Supplied / Bryce McQuillan Photography A native jumping spider boasting great eyesight and tiny genitalia has been discovered at a Rotorua forest that is being restored. Rotorua Canopy Tours has been working to remove every predator from the Dansey Scenic Reserve for more than a decade. They are now enjoying the fruits of their labour, with new species being discovered as the old growth forest thrives. Lincoln University PhD student Kate Curtis found the new species living under rimu bark while hunting for spiders in the Dansey Scenic Reserve in Rotorua over summer. The forest was part of a years-long restoration project by Rotorua Canopy Tours, and she said it was rich with life and had incredible spider and insect diversity. She has been studying spiders for about seven years, but wanted to dive into taxonomy or describing new species. There are an estimated 250 species of jumping spiders in Aotearoa but only 50 of them are described and fewer than 10 can be reliably identified. "A lot of spiders have complex genitalia and this (species), they're quite simple so it can be quite difficult to tell the difference between species and this is sort of why not much work has been done on them in New Zealand," she said. Male spiders have genitalia called pedipalps that look like they are holding little boxing gloves near their face. The females have a hardened plate on the underside of their abdomen. The male's sperm tube for these jumping spiders was extra small, she said. "They're really difficult to find in the microscope, they're really really small. You almost have to work at different angles to actually find (it)." Paapaakiri leap to hunt their prey so they need better eyesight, Curtis said. "But the flipside of having great eyes when you're a spider is that the genitalia is often simpler and more puny, and their mating rituals more complex. "For scientists, this makes them harder to categorise than other species, but it doesn't appear to be an issue for the spiders themselves." The Paapaakiri male spiders have great eyesight, but in the spider world that often means simple, puny genitalia and elaborate mating rituals. Photo: Supplied / Bryce McQuillan Photography Paapaakiri translates to scaly or flaky bark, a nod to the rimu trees where they make their homes. "Most other native jumping spiders live in vegetation, leaf litter, under rocks, and even high in the mountain ranges so it was unusual to find one specifically living under the rimu bark," she said. "The bark could provide a unique protective microhabitat, offering protection from predators and harsh environmental conditions, as well as an ideal site for ambushing prey." It was her job to look at their structures, photograph, draw, measure and describe all their features so they could be identified in the future. Rotorua Canopy Tours general manager Paul Button said their work started with a promise their founder made more than a decade ago. "He went where there was no foliage in the undergrowth, now it was 12 to 14 feet high. "It's mind-blowing," he said. "It's emotional how much it has come back. When we first started there wasn't a bird, there wasn't a tweet, and now there are birds everywhere." For the past three years, the business has done a collaborative research programme looking at invertebrates, setting traps across the different layers of the forest. So far, they had found 12 species that are new to science. Button said species like native pseudoscorpions used to struggle, but they were bouncing back. "They're about three millimetres long. They're through New Zealand's forests, they don't have a poisonous tail, they've got a poisonous sack in their buttocks," he said. Most of our birds do not have defence mechanisms, but the same could not be said for invertebrates, he said. "They're hardcore. They're the ones with armour and poison and that's where its kind of like the orcs battling in the scene of Lord of the Rings ." For guests who were not keen on eight legged friends, Button said you would hear about the spiders more than you would see them as they talked about the forest as part of the tours. He hoped their success would encourage more tourism operators to help restore the environment they work in. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
