In a world increasingly shaped by climate risk, social unrest, and shifting expectations from capital markets, a quiet revolution is underway. It’s not being led by activists or think tanks, but by accountants, policymakers, and global regulators. The unlikely epicenter? The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), an initiative launched by the IFRS Foundation, long known for its role in international accounting.
With the 2025 release of jurisdictional profiles and a suite of technical guidance, the IFRS Foundation has begun mapping a new kind of infrastructure: not pipelines or roads, but a global network for sustainability disclosure. One that’s rigorous, aligned, and—if all goes to plan—universally adopted.
But what does this really mean? How do you take something as complex and culturally dependent as sustainability and express it in globally comparable financial terms? And more importantly—why does it matter now?
From numbers to narratives: the ISSB’s big idea
To understand what the ISSB is doing, it helps to start with a fundamental shift in thinking.
Traditionally, financial reporting asked: What did your company earn? What are your assets and liabilities? Today, the questions have expanded: What are your climate risks? How exposed are you to water scarcity, supply chain fragility, or emerging regulation?
The ISSB’s two flagship standards—IFRS S1 (General Requirements) and IFRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures)—aim to standardize answers to those questions. They provide detailed frameworks for how companies should disclose sustainability-related risks and opportunities in their general-purpose financial reporting.
It’s not about storytelling. It’s about materiality—what matters financially, and why.
S1 provides the overarching principles. S2, focused on climate, dives into granular metrics like emissions (Scopes 1, 2, and 3), transition plans, and scenario analyses. The structure echoes financial accounting standards: clear definitions, specific requirements, and audit-ready detail.
This is a big deal. It’s an attempt to make sustainability financially legible—to embed it in the very fabric of capital markets.
A world in transition: jurisdictions react
In June 2025, the IFRS Foundation published jurisdictional profiles for over 80 countries, revealing a fascinating mosaic. These profiles are more than compliance checklists—they’re diagnostic tools showing how sustainability disclosure is evolving across legal systems, cultures, and economies.
Some jurisdictions have already pulled the trigger. For example:
- Nigeria and Brazil are among early adopters, rolling out full implementation of S1 and S2, starting with listed companies.
- Canada, Japan, and South Korea are taking a phased approach—voluntary at first, with an eye toward mandatory use in coming years.
- Others, like the U.S., have their own climate disclosure rules in the works but are working on interoperability rather than outright adoption.
Each jurisdiction’s response is shaped by local context: political appetite, market maturity, existing ESG frameworks, and legal mandates. But taken together, the profiles show unmistakable momentum—a kind of regulatory gravitation toward global norms.
Building the blueprint: the adoption guide
Of course, adopting a new global standard isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. That’s why the IFRS Foundation released the Inaugural Jurisdictional Adoption Guide—a dense but essential document that walks regulators through every step of bringing ISSB standards into national law.
The guide includes:
- Policy options: Should countries adopt S1 and S2 together or separately? Should application be mandatory for all large entities or phased by sector?
- Materiality principles: How should regulators interpret “financial materiality” in local contexts?
- Transitional reliefs: What flexibilities should be offered to companies in their first reporting year?
Importantly, the guide doesn’t assume a one-size-fits-all model. It encourages modularity, local adaptation, and a phased approach that balances urgency with practicality.
Behind the scenes: the regulatory implementation programme
Technical standards are only as good as their implementation. The Regulatory Implementation Programme (RIP) is the IFRS Foundation’s way of making sure countries aren’t left to figure it all out on their own.
Through RIP, the IFRS Foundation offers:
- Technical clinics for regulators, clarifying how standards should be interpreted and enforced.
- Workshops with audit and assurance bodies, ensuring that new disclosures can be verified with credibility.
- Partnerships with development banks and NGOs, particularly in lower-income countries, to build local capacity.
This isn’t just handholding—it’s institutional scaffolding. It recognizes that global standards will only work if they can be embedded in local ecosystems: legal systems, accounting education, audit practices, and market infrastructure.
Tools for the journey: roadmaps and maps
The IFRS Foundation has also launched two tools to help countries plan their path:
- The Roadmap Development Tool – Think of it as a policy toolkit. It includes templates for stakeholder engagement, legal gap analysis, and implementation timelines. It’s especially useful for countries trying to align multiple ESG frameworks under a single, coherent strategy.
- The ISSB Adoption Map – An interactive dashboard showing who’s adopting what, where, and when. It’s a transparency tool—and, perhaps, a bit of peer pressure.
Together, these tools promote what the IFRS calls “interoperability”—a delicate balancing act of aligning with local laws while keeping the reporting language globally consistent.
The deeper shift: sustainability as financial logic
At a deeper level, the ISSB’s work isn’t just about disclosure. It’s about reprogramming how companies think about value and risk.
In this new paradigm, a coal-heavy business model isn’t just a reputational liability—it’s a quantifiable financial risk. Water usage, deforestation exposure, supply chain resilience—these aren’t side issues anymore. They are inputs into investor decision-making, credit ratings, insurance pricing, and regulatory scrutiny.
This is where the ISSB’s emphasis on “investor-focused” sustainability comes into sharp relief. Unlike broader frameworks that may include ethics, impact, or stakeholder concerns, the ISSB’s standards are unapologetically tied to enterprise value.
That’s a strategic choice—one aimed at getting buy-in from financial institutions, stock exchanges, and global regulators. But it also draws a line: this is about risk, not virtue.
Where it’s going
We’re still early in the story. The ISSB’s standards went live just last year, and full global uptake may take a decade or more. But the infrastructure is being laid, the tools are in place, and the demand—especially from institutional investors—is only growing.
There will be challenges. Translating standards into different languages and legal systems. Avoiding duplication with local rules. Building assurance capacity in underserved markets. Ensuring SMEs aren’t left behind.
Yet, the direction is clear. What the IFRS did for financial accounting two decades ago, it is now trying to do for sustainability disclosure: create a single, global language for risk.
And as climate change accelerates, resource constraints mount, and markets seek clarity in a sea of ESG noise, that common language may be the most important infrastructure we build.
