Yes absolutely! Because it will harmonize the reporting

As to your first question -- whether the GRI Standards will become the international standard for non-financial reporting:

The short answer: The GRI Standards already today are the de facto standard for sustainability reporting. The future role of GRI, however, depends on what direction non-financial reporting will take.

The longer answer: According to a KPMG survey, 80% of all sustainability reports done by the global big players in 2011 were based on the GRI guidelines (as the GRI Standards had been called until 2016) – as were close to 50% of all non-financial reports published on the popular platform The Corporate Register, in that same year. Thus, it is justified to say that the GRI Standards today present a de facto standard for sustainability reporting.

However, there's currently a debate on the future direction non-financial reporting should take -- a debate that's been triggered by its growing popularity and by recent regulatory moves (e. g. the EU's directive 2014/95/EU). Some parties in that debate - including powerful big corporations and the accountancy profession - seem to promote a move away from standalone (sustainability) reporting towards "integrated reporting" (as promoted by the IIRC, with its branded framework) that's focusing on risks rather than impacts, shareholders rather than stakeholders, and on the business case rather than the social case of CSR. So, the future role of GRI depends on what direction non-financial reporting will take. Fundamentally, it will depend on what's deemed "material" in non-financial reporting -- i.e. what the social responsibility of business is supposed to be, at the end of the day.

I'm currently writing an article on that issue - the contest for materiality in non-financial reporting - that will hopefully be published soon :-) There's also a related article available on my ResearchGate profile, but only in German.

A current review for Germany concludes that, with few exceptions, large German companies base their reporting on the standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The proportion of GRI reporters among SMEs has also risen to 80 percent.

Source: Institut für ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung und future e. V. - verantwortung unternehmen (Ed.): CSR-REPORTING VON GROSSunternehmerNEHMEN UND KMU IN DEUTSCH-LAND - Ergebnisse und Trends im Ranking der Nachhaltigkeitsberichte 2018; page 3, download at https://www.ranking-nachhaltigkeitsberichte.de/data/ranking/user_upload/2018/Ranking_Nachhaltigkeitsberichte_2018_Ergebnisbericht.pdf

Buenas tardes, los reportes bajo GRI se deben fortalecer cada día más , considerando los requerimientos que realizan usuarios gubernamentales y no gubernamentales con mediciones de situaciones que trascienden lo contable, en cuanto a que no se vienen realizando ,entonces los profesionales de la Contaduría debemos interactuar con ING Ambientales, Agrónomos ,ING Industriales y otros profesionales.

Thank you all for the discussion. I would also like to hear your opinion on how much accounting information is important for non-financial reporting? Given that GRI indicators around 25-30% refer to the information that an accounting information system obviates. Under these information, I mean first of all those that arise from environmental accounting and monitoring the legal costs of ecology and investments in socially responsible projects.@ Michael Klotz Dirk Raith Ana Susana Cantillo Orozco Abhishek Nanjundaswamy

How does the accounting law regulate the issue of non-financial reporting on certain aspects of business?

As to your last question: In a way, EU directive 2014/95/EU "as regards disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups" (2014/95/EU, amending 2013/34/EU) does do that. It attained legal status through its adoption in national law by EU member states by 2017.

If you find during your research, any article that discusses the relationship of accounting to non-financial reporting, please send me. Dirk Raith

Hello dear I am very happy to read the questions and find the answers

I think that this issue is very interesting. Thank you Adheem Naeem