ISSB Standards (IFRS S1 & S2)
International Sustainability Standards Board - IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards · IFRS Foundation
The IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards are the global baseline for telling investors how sustainability issues affect a company's prospects. IFRS S1 sets the general requirements and IFRS S2 covers climate. Both took effect for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024. Singapore is the reason most local companies meet them: SGX RegCo's Practice Note 7.6 requires listed issuers to apply IFRS S2 plus the climate-relevant parts of IFRS S1, phased by company size.
What this means in Singapore
Singapore does not adopt the ISSB Standards wholesale. It applies them through a climate-first, phased regime run jointly by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) and SGX RegCo. The IFRS Foundation's own jurisdictional profile for Singapore, updated 26 June 2026, classifies the country as partially incorporating ISSB Standards, with a stated target of adopting the climate requirements. It records three indefinite local modifications: the climate-first approach, the timing-of-reporting extension where assurance is obtained, and the narrower Scope 3 requirement.
What is required, and when. SGX Listing Rule 711A sets the timing of the sustainability report and Rule 711B sets its components, with the climate component governed by Practice Note 7.6 (Mainboard) or Practice Note 7F (Catalist). Practice Note 7.6 requires issuers to apply IFRS S2 together with the climate-relevant provisions of IFRS S1, phased as follows (FY2025 means financial years commencing on or after 1 January 2025):
| Requirement | STI constituents as at 30 June 2025 | Non-STI, market cap at least S$1b | Non-STI, below S$1b | Large non-listed companies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scope 1 and 2 GHG | FY2025 | FY2025 | FY2025 | FY2030 |
| Other ISSB-based climate disclosures | FY2025 | FY2028 | FY2030 | FY2030 |
| Scope 3 GHG | FY2026 | Voluntary | Voluntary | Voluntary |
| External limited assurance over Scope 1 and 2 | FY2029 | FY2029 | FY2029 | FY2032 |
These dates follow the ACRA and SGX RegCo announcement of 25 August 2025, Extended Timelines for Most Climate Reporting Requirements to Support Companies. Note the top tier: STI constituents are already reporting the full ISSB-based climate package, and Scope 3 from FY2026. Once an issuer is caught by a tier, the obligation sticks even if it later leaves the index or its market capitalisation falls.
A large non-listed company is a Singapore-incorporated company limited by shares, not SGX-listed, with annual revenue of at least S$1 billion and total assets of at least S$500 million. A subsidiary whose parent already reports under ISSB-based local standards, or standards ACRA deems equivalent, is exempt provided its activities are included in the parent's publicly available report.
Assurance. From FY2029 (listed) and FY2032 (large non-listed), limited assurance over Scope 1 and Scope 2 is mandatory. It may be performed under a Singapore standard equivalent to the IAASB's ISSA 5000, or under Singapore Standard SS ISO 14064-3 - the formal bridge between ISSB reporting and the ISO 14064 family. ACRA's requirements page states the provider must be an ACRA-registered audit firm or a Testing, Inspection and Certification firm accredited by the Singapore Accreditation Council.
Statement of compliance. Practice Note 7.6 encourages but does not require issuers to state compliance with IFRS S2 or the ISSB Standards. That may change once the Singapore Sustainability Disclosure Standards are finalised.
How the framework works
What the ISSB is for
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) sits inside the IFRS Foundation, the same body that oversees the accounting standards used in more than 140 jurisdictions. Its job is narrower than it first appears. ISSB Standards do not try to measure a company's impact on the world; they require a company to tell investors and lenders about the sustainability risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect its cash flows, its access to finance, or its cost of capital, over the short, medium or long term. That is why these disclosures form part of an entity's general purpose financial reports rather than a separate corporate-responsibility brochure.
The two standards
IFRS S1 General Requirements is the umbrella. It applies to every sustainability-related risk and opportunity, climate included. IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures is the first topic standard, covering physical risk (floods, heat, storms), transition risk (policy, technology, market shifts) and climate-related opportunities.
Both are built on the same four pillars, inherited from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD):
- Governance - the processes, controls and procedures used to monitor, manage and oversee the issue.
- Strategy - how the business model and value chain are affected, the effects on financial position, performance and cash flows, and how resilient the strategy is.
- Risk management - how risks are identified, assessed, prioritised and monitored, and how that plugs into overall risk management.
- Metrics and targets - performance against targets the company has set or that law requires.
Connected information, timing and comparatives
IFRS S1 insists the pieces join up: between different risks and opportunities, between the four pillars, and above all between the sustainability disclosures and the financial statements. It also requires the disclosures to be published at the same time as the related financial statements, for the same period and for the same reporting entity. Comparative figures are required for all amounts disclosed for the preceding period, subject to the first-year reliefs.
Where a company complies with every requirement, IFRS S1 paragraph 72 requires an explicit and unreserved statement of compliance. Where no ISSB Standard covers a topic, IFRS S1 directs the company to refer to and consider the SASB Standards, and permits it to consider other sources such as the CDSB Framework application guidance and peer practice.
How emissions must be measured
IFRS S2 is unusually specific about greenhouse gas (GHG) numbers. It requires absolute gross Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), aggregating the seven Kyoto Protocol gases named in IFRS S2 Appendix A: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, nitrogen trifluoride, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride.
A few points are routinely misunderstood:
- Scope 2 must be disclosed on a location-based basis. Information about contractual instruments such as renewable energy certificates is required where it helps users understand the figure, and a market-based number may be given as additional information - but the location-based figure is the one that must appear.
- The global warming potential basis is not fixed to a named IPCC report. IFRS S2 requires 100-year values from the latest IPCC assessment available at the reporting date. That currently resolves to AR6, but the requirement rolls forward automatically, so a system that hard-codes AR6 will eventually be wrong.
- IFRS S2 does not prescribe emission factors. Paragraph B29 says the standard does not specify which factors to use; the company must use factors that best represent its activity and disclose which ones it used. This is precisely why a Singapore-specific grid emission factor is a disclosure input rather than a number handed down by the standard.
- The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004) is the measurement basis, but only for measurement, and only to the extent it does not conflict with IFRS S2 (paragraph B23). A jurisdiction or exchange may require a different method, in which case that method may be used for the part of the entity the requirement covers.
- Disaggregation. Scope 1 and Scope 2 must be split between the consolidated accounting group and other investees such as associates and joint ventures. The GHG Protocol has no equivalent requirement.
The seven cross-industry metrics
Beyond emissions, IFRS S2 paragraph 29 requires six further cross-industry metric categories: assets or business activities vulnerable to transition risk; assets or activities vulnerable to physical risk; assets or activities aligned with climate opportunities; capital deployed towards climate risks and opportunities; internal carbon prices, including the price per tonne and how it is used; and whether and how climate is factored into executive remuneration, with the percentage linked to climate.
Companies must also assess the climate resilience of their strategy using scenario analysis, describe how and when the analysis was done, and disclose transition plan information under the Strategy pillar. The IFRS Foundation published non-mandatory transition plan guidance on 23 June 2025, building on the Transition Plan Taskforce materials it took over in 2024; it covers both mitigation and adaptation and adds no new requirements.
Live developments
Two things are moving. The ISSB issued targeted Amendments to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosures on 11 December 2025, effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 with early application permitted. And in Singapore, ACRA's Interim Sustainability Standards Committee is consulting on draft Singapore Sustainability Disclosure Standards, which would adapt IFRS S1 and S2 for local use.
Standards in this family
8 documents.
The umbrella standard. It requires disclosure of material information about every sustainability-related risk and opportunity that could reasonably affect a company's cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital.
IFRS S1 is the entry point to the whole system. It defines what counts as material, where the disclosures go, when they are published, and how they connect to the financial statements.
Structure. The same four pillars run through it: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.
Connected information. Disclosures must be presented so that users can relate them to information in the financial statements. This is the requirement that stops sustainability reporting drifting into a parallel universe with its own assumptions.
Timing and entity. Disclosures must be published at the same time as the related financial statements, for the same period and for the same reporting entity.
Sources of guidance. Where no ISSB Standard addresses a topic, the company shall refer to and consider the applicability of the SASB Standards, and may consider the CDSB Framework application guidance, other standard-setters' pronouncements and peer practice.
Statement of compliance. Paragraph 72 requires an explicit and unreserved statement where the company complies with all requirements.
Comparatives. Paragraph 70 requires comparatives for all amounts disclosed for the preceding period, plus narrative comparatives where relevant, subject to Appendix E.
Effective date. Annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024, with earlier application permitted as long as IFRS S2 is applied at the same time (paragraph E1).
Singapore note. Only the climate-relevant provisions of IFRS S1 are mandatory under SGX Practice Note 7.6, and ACRA's draft Singapore standard would make the local equivalent of IFRS S1 voluntary.
The climate standard, applied together with IFRS S1. It covers physical risk, transition risk and climate opportunities, and it prescribes greenhouse gas measurement, scenario-based resilience assessment and a set of cross-industry metrics.
IFRS S2 applies the four pillars to climate and then adds hard requirements that TCFD only recommended.
Metrics and targets (paragraph 28) require cross-industry metric categories, industry-based metrics, and climate-related targets including any required by law, plus the metrics management itself uses.
The seven cross-industry categories (paragraph 29):
1. Greenhouse gases - absolute gross Scope 1, 2 and 3 in tCO2e; Scope 1 and 2 disaggregated between the consolidated accounting group and other investees; Scope 2 disclosed location-based; Scope 3 measured using the GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard (2011) with the included categories identified. Entities in asset management, commercial banking or insurance must give additional financed-emissions information.
2. Transition risks - amount and percentage of assets or business activities vulnerable.
3. Physical risks - amount and percentage vulnerable.
4. Climate-related opportunities - amount and percentage aligned.
5. Capital deployment - capital expenditure, financing or investment directed at climate risks and opportunities.
6. Internal carbon prices - whether and how a price is used in decisions, and the price per tonne.
7. Remuneration - whether and how climate is factored into executive pay, and the percentage linked to it.
Climate resilience (paragraph 22) requires an assessment using climate-related scenario analysis, with an approach commensurate with the entity's circumstances, and disclosure of how and when it was carried out.
Industry-based metrics (paragraph 32) require the entity to refer to and consider the applicability of the metrics in the Industry-based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2.
Effective date. Annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024, earlier application permitted if IFRS S1 is applied at the same time.
Targeted amendments to IFRS S2 issued on 11 December 2025, effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 with early application permitted. They add a jurisdictional relief on global warming potential values, clarify the existing relief on measurement method, and let financial institutions narrow Scope 3 Category 15.
The amending pronouncement is ISSB/2025/1. It was approved by 11 of the 12 ISSB members and followed 179 comment letters and survey responses on the April 2025 exposure draft. Per paragraph C1A it amended paragraphs 29(a)(ii), 29(a)(vi)(2), B21-B22, B24, B28, B37, B59, B62(a), B63(a) and C4(b), and added paragraphs 29A-29C, B62A, B63A, C1B and C6.
1. Global warming potential values (B21-B22). This is the genuinely new relief. Measurement must use 100-year values from the latest IPCC assessment available at the reporting date, unless a jurisdictional authority or an exchange the entity is listed on requires different values, in which case those may be used for as long as the requirement applies. Where emission factors already express CO2e, they need not be recalculated to the latest IPCC values.
2. Measurement method (B24). The relief from the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004) where a jurisdiction or exchange requires a different method was already in IFRS S2 (2023) at paragraphs 29(a)(ii) and B24. What the amendment did was clarify that it applies where the requirement covers the entity in whole or in part, for the part it covers. A partial jurisdictional requirement does not exempt the entity from disclosing Scope 1, 2 and 3 for the entity as a whole.
3. Scope 3 Category 15 (29A-29C). An entity may limit Category 15 to financed emissions and may exclude emissions attributable to derivatives. If it does, it must explain what it treated as a derivative and which financial activities were excluded, and it must disclose total Category 15 with the financed-emissions subtotal within it.
4. Industry classification (B62A, B63A). A system other than GICS may be used to disaggregate financed emissions where it produces more meaningful disclosure.
5. Transition (C6). Comparatives must be restated for these changes unless impracticable.
Consequential amendments to the financed-emissions metrics in three SASB Standards (asset management and custody activities, commercial banks, insurance) were issued as a separate pronouncement.
Three first-year reliefs plus one that extends into year two: no comparatives, permission to publish sustainability disclosures after the financial statements, and permission to report on climate only.
Appendix E is the on-ramp. It matters because getting the sequencing wrong is the most common first-year error.
- E3 - comparatives relief. No disclosures are required for any period before the date of initial application, so there are no comparatives in the first annual reporting period.
- E4 - timing of reporting relief. In the first year only, sustainability disclosures may be published after the related financial statements, but no later than: the next second-quarter or half-year interim report if the entity is required to produce one; the same capped at nine months after year end if it produces one voluntarily; or nine months after year end if it produces none.
- E5 - climate-first relief. In the first year only, the entity may disclose climate-related risks and opportunities only, applying IFRS S1 solely as it relates to climate. It must disclose that it used the relief.
- E6 - extended comparatives relief. This one does not stop after year one. An entity that used E5 is not required to disclose comparative information about non-climate sustainability risks and opportunities in its second annual reporting period. Comparatives for climate-related matters are required in year two; non-climate comparatives are not.
So the accurate summary is: E3 to E5 are first-year reliefs, and E6 carries the comparatives relief for non-climate matters into year two. After that the full requirements apply - all material sustainability risks and opportunities, published at the same time as and for the same period as the financial statements, with comparatives.
Singapore note. ACRA's draft local standard proposes to delete the equivalents of E4 and E5.
First-year reliefs covering comparatives, continued use of a previously used measurement method, and exemption from disclosing Scope 3 including financed emissions.
- C2 - the date of initial application is the beginning of the annual reporting period in which the entity first applies IFRS S2.
- C3 - no disclosures are required for any period before that date, so no comparatives in year one.
- C4(a) - if in the period immediately before initial application the entity used a method other than the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004), it may continue using that method for the first year.
- C4(b) - the entity need not disclose Scope 3 emissions in the first year, including the additional financed-emissions information required of entities in asset management, commercial banking or insurance. The December 2025 amendments confirmed that C4(a) and C4(b) may be used together, and updated the cross-reference to paragraphs B58-B63A.
- C5 - a relief used under C4(a) or C4(b) may be carried through when that information is later presented as a comparative.
- C6 (added December 2025) - on first applying the GHG amendments, an entity that previously applied IFRS S2 must, unless impracticable, restate comparatives for a change in measurement method, for the new Category 15 and financed-emissions split, and for a change of industry classification system.
The December 2025 amendments also added paragraphs C1A and C1B, so any Appendix C summary written before 11 December 2025 is incomplete.
From year two, Scope 3 including Category 15 financed emissions must be disclosed, and the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard (2004) must be used unless a jurisdictional relief applies. SGX Practice Note 7.6 paragraph 4.20 mirrors these reliefs for Singapore issuers, including relief from comparatives.
Industry-specific standards covering 77 industries, maintained by the ISSB since the IFRS Foundation completed its consolidation with the Value Reporting Foundation on 1 August 2022. IFRS S1 requires companies to refer to and consider them when looking beyond climate.
The SASB Standards identify the sustainability issues most likely to matter to investors in a given industry, and give metrics for each. Under IFRS S1 a company shall refer to and consider their applicability when identifying non-climate risks, opportunities and metrics. Their climate-relevant content is carried into the IFRS S2 Industry-based Guidance.
Access. They are available through the SASB Standards Navigator at navigator.sasb.ifrs.org, free of charge - but the Navigator presents sign-in and registration prompts, so it cannot be deep-linked as an anonymous resource. Commercial redistribution requires a licence.
Known friction. The Standards were originally designed for United States filings, and the ISSB is working to internationalise them. Preparers and regulators, ACRA included, have raised the practical question of what "refer to and consider" actually requires and what documentation is expected. The ISSB has acknowledged that further work is needed.
Singapore note. ACRA's draft Singapore standards propose changing every "shall refer to and consider" reference to SASB materials into "may refer to and consider". If finalised, using SASB in Singapore becomes encouraged practice rather than a compliance obligation.
One asymmetry worth knowing: there are 77 SASB industries but 68 volumes in the IFRS S2 Industry-based Guidance, because the guidance carries only the climate-relevant subset.
The industry-specific companion to IFRS S2, organised into 68 volumes across 11 sectors and derived largely unchanged from the climate-relevant parts of the SASB Standards.
IFRS S2 paragraph 12 requires a company to refer to and consider the industry-based disclosure topics in this guidance, and paragraph 32 requires the same for the industry-based metrics associated with those topics.
The guidance is where industry-specific measures live: fleet fuel economy for transport operators, gross global Scope 1 emissions from specified activities for heavy industry, exposure of assets in high-risk locations for property and insurance, and so on. It is organised into volumes B1 to B68 across 11 Sustainable Industry Classification System sectors.
Why the count differs from SASB. SASB covers 77 industries; this guidance has 68 volumes because it carries only the climate-relevant content.
Support material. The IFRS Foundation published educational material in July 2025 on using the Industry-based Guidance when applying ISSB Standards.
Open question. Both ACRA's November 2025 comment letter to the ISSB and the July 2026 Singapore consultation flag that "shall refer to and consider" is hard to operationalise: what counts as adequate consideration, and what evidence should a preparer keep. Proposed amendments to this guidance are being consulted on as part of the SASB enhancement programme.
A multi-phase programme to internationalise and modernise the SASB Standards and the IFRS S2 Industry-based Guidance, run across two exposure drafts covering 12 prioritised standards.
The work splits cleanly into two exposure drafts, not three:
- July 2025 exposure draft - covered 9 of the 12 prioritised SASB Standards, with a comment deadline of 30 November 2025. It sits on the "Enhancing the SASB Standards" (Phase 1) project page.
- March 2026 exposure draft (SASB/ED/2026/1) - Proposed Amendments to the SASB Standards and IFRS S2 Industry-based Guidance. The ISSB ratified it at its 25-26 February 2026 meeting and published it in March 2026 with a 120-day comment period closing 24 July 2026. It covers the remaining three standards - Agricultural Products; Meat, Poultry and Dairy; and Electric Utilities and Power Generators - plus the consequential Industry-based Guidance volumes. It also proposes amendments to SASB disclosure topics and metrics connected to the nature and human capital research projects, deliberately so that the feedback feeds those projects.
Because the work spans two project pages (Phase 1 and Phase 1-Continued), citing only one of them loses half the trail.
Singapore angle. ACRA submitted a comment letter in November 2025, cited in the Singapore Sustainability Disclosure Standards consultation paper as Comments on the Proposed Amendments to the SASB Standards and the Industry-Based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2. Its concerns about operationalising the SASB reference are the reason the draft Singapore standards propose softening "shall" to "may".