ISSB at COP28: close to 400 organisations from 64 jurisdictions, including associations gathering over 10,000 member companies and investors, join multilateral and market authorities to commit to advance the ISSB climate global baseline

Close to 400 organisations from 64 jurisdictions have committed to advancing the adoption or use of the International Sustainability Standards Board’s climate-related reporting at a global level.

This groundswell of support from companies, investors, stock exchanges, the accountancy profession, multilaterals, NGOs, universities, data analytics providers, corporate advisors and others comes as the ISSB embarks on a new phase—from creation to action—following the issuance of the first two ISSB Standards in June 2023.

Earlier this year, the ISSB Standards were endorsed by the global body for international securities regulators—IOSCO—and since then companies, jurisdictions, and other market players from around the world have been paving the way towards adopting or using the ISSB Standards.

The declaration of support, announced during Finance Day at COP28, demonstrates the strong support to advance action-oriented responses to the risk of climate change.

Corporate membership groups representing thousands of companies globally have signed the statement, joined by more than 140 companies preparing public disclosures who also chose to demonstrate support directly. Companies have been calling for standards that enable them to communicate to investors comprehensive information about their climate resilience strategy.

Investor membership groups, gathering thousands of investors with more than $120tn of AUM, from around the world have also signed, and are joined by more than 70 institutional investors who signed individually. Investors have been calling for standards that provide decision-useful, comparable sustainability disclosures.

More than 25 stock exchanges have also directly signalled their support, as well the African Securities Exchanges Association which represents 27 securities exchanges and the Arab Federation of Capital Markets, representing 17 stock exchanges.

Furthermore, over 40 professional accounting organisations and audit firms from around the world have pledged their support.

Regulators and standard setters from ASEAN, Brazil, Brunei, Canada, the European Union, Germany, Ghana, Hong Kong, Japan, Kenya, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, the Philippines, Singapore, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Uruguay and Vietnam have also welcomed the work of the ISSB, as jurisdictions around the world start considering how they may incorporate the ISSB Standards into their regulatory frameworks.

IOSCO and the Financial Stability Board of G20 reiterated the critical support they brought on the announcement of the creation of ISSB at COP26, joined again by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations entities, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and echoed by Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS).

The ISSB’s key partners in the sustainability disclosure landscape including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), CDP and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) also reaffirmed their support for the work of the ISSB. The ISSB continues to work closely with these partners to reduce market fragmentation in the sustainability disclosure landscape. 

Reflecting on the strong support heard during COP28, Emmanuel Faber, ISSB Chair, said:

Signatories to this declaration represent organisations of all sizes from every continent. We recognise this as a signal of the urgency behind our work and confirmation that the ISSB Standards can deliver a vital global solution in the need for better information about the risks posed by climate.

Market participants have consistently told us through consultation that they need global sustainability disclosure standards that are proportionate and scalable. The ISSB Standards provide this and with the support of organisations around the world we will work to build the market infrastructure and capacity building necessary to implement the standards worldwide. The launch of our knowledge hub that provides content to support the implementation of the ISSB Standards is an important step forward in this work.

We thank all our partners and our stakeholders for their continued support and hard work, and look forward to our continued engagement.