The IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) announced the launch of its new Jurisdictional Roadmap Development Tool, aimed at supporting regulators and market participants adopt or use the ISSB’s sustainability reporting standards in their jurisdictions.

The ISSB was launched in November 2021 at the COP26 climate conference, with the goal to develop IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards to provide investors with information about companies’ sustainability risks and opportunities. The IFRS released the inaugural general sustainability (IFRS S1) and climate (IFRS S2) reporting standards in June 2023. To date, more than 35 jurisdictions have started the process to use the standards.

According to ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber, the new tool comes to address key challenges and considerations facing jurisdictions in developing roadmaps for adopting the sustainability reporting standards, including deciding which authorities will be responsible for leading adoption, how to engage with market participants, and how to build capacity within the financial ecosystem.

Faber said:

“The launch of the Roadmap Tool marks a significant milestone and confirms the ISSB’s commitment to developing tools and resources that are useful to jurisdictions. This Roadmap Tool equips regulators to make informed decisions about their approach towards adoption or other use of ISSB Standards.”

The new tool follows the launch last year by the ISSB of its “Inaugural Jurisdictional Guide for the adoption or other use of ISSB Standards,” and develops the guide’s concepts into practical application. The tool focuses on four key decision areas, including the regulatory process of deciding how to adopt or otherwise use ISSB Standards, which entities will be subject to the reporting requirements, the specific content covered in the sustainability-related disclosure requirements, and addressing when requirements will become effective and whether there is a case for scaling and phasing in the requirements.

Alongside the launch of the new tool, the IFRS Foundation said that it has also released templates of the jurisdictional approaches described in the Inaugural Jurisdictional Guide, providing users with a reference to understand how a jurisdiction’s decisions may be understood by stakeholders and described by the IFRS Foundation.

Faber added:

“I trust that the Tool will also be a central resource for implementation partners supporting jurisdictions progress their adoption considerations. I look forward to further collaboration with jurisdictional authorities and implementation partner organisations to support jurisdictions on their journeys, and to see the far-reaching impacts of this tool.”
Click here to access the new roadmap tool.

Click here to access the new roadmap tool.