ISSB Expands Jurisdictional Working Group to Enable Global Sustainability Reporting Passport

The International Sustainability Standards Board has announced a significant expansion of its Jurisdictional Adopters Working Group and released new guidance tools aimed at helping the approximately 40 jurisdictions planning to adopt ISSB standards reduce cross-border reporting fragmentation. ISSB Chair Emmanuel Faber said the introduction of passporting provisions would lower costs for preparers and reduce frictions in capital markets.

The ISSB, launched in November 2021 at COP26, published its inaugural IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 standards in June 2023. Since then the number of jurisdictions planning to adopt or use those standards has grown to approximately 40, generating new challenges around cross-border recognition of standards-aligned reports. To address this, the ISSB has renamed and expanded the Jurisdictional Working Group—originally established in 2022—into the Jurisdictional Adopters Working Group, focused on enabling reports prepared under ISSB standards to serve as a global passport across jurisdictions.

The ISSB also released a new Jurisdictional Rationale Guide and an accompanying Jurisdictional Rationale Tool to help regulators develop sustainability disclosure regimes tailored to their specific needs while contributing to globally consistent and comparable capital market information. The passporting concept is particularly significant for multinational companies operating in multiple jurisdictions, as it could reduce the need to produce separate reports for different regulatory regimes, cutting compliance costs and standardising disclosures for cross-border investors.

For India, which is developing its sustainability disclosure requirements under SEBI's Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting framework and monitoring ISSB adoption globally, the passporting initiative has implications for Indian companies with international listings and for foreign investors assessing Indian firms. As regulators worldwide align with ISSB standards, consistent adoption and mutual recognition mechanisms will determine how smoothly Indian companies can access global capital markets without incurring duplicative reporting burdens.

Key figure — Approximately 40 jurisdictions planning to adopt ISSB Standards