This summary highlights the discussion during the Corporate Climate Reporting workshop, held on April 21, 2026 during San Francisco Climate Week. The program featured a keynote discussion with Anne Simpson, Vice Chair, Official Monetary Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), followed by a panel discussion on climate mandates featuring:
Greg Bartholomew, ISSB Technical Staff, IFRS Foundation; Marc Rotter, Counsel, Ropes & Gray; and Michelle Savage, VP Communication, XBRL US, led by Katie Schmitz, INSEAD MBA, GCB.D, Director Outreach, Global Investors, IFRS Foundation.The final panel discussion focused on the impact on stakeholders to the climate reporting process with Daniela Arias, ESG Services National Market Leader, Crowe LLP; Ami Beers, CPA, CGMA, Senior Director, Assurance and Advisory Innovation, AICPA; Jessica Mann, CFA, Head of Stewardship, Allspring Global Investments; Kathy Mulvany, Senior Director/Global Head of Sustainability, Everpure; and Adrienne Uphoff, ESG Regulation & Impact Accounting Manager, Everpure.
Thank you to Crowe LLP for co-hosting the workshop.
Climate Reporting as a Fiduciary Duty: Climate data is no longer a voluntary exercise in virtue, but a legal requirement rooted in the fiduciary duties of prudence and loyalty. Material information includes systemic threats like extreme weather and ecosystem collapse, and credible data is required to avoid a "market for lemons" where a lack of transparency depresses asset values.
California Filling the Federal Void: With the SEC's climate rules on indefinite pause, California has emerged as a major driver of innovation and regulation. California's SB 253 and SB 261 mandate greenhouse gas emissions (including Scope 3) and climate risk reporting, which will bring a significant portion of the U.S. economy into alignment with international standards.
Navigating a Fragmented Global Landscape: Companies are dealing with a complex patchwork of rules. The EU recently scaled back its Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), delaying timelines and removing 80-90% of originally scoped companies. To combat jurisdictional fragmentation, the ISSB has established IFRS S1 and S2 as a global baseline and is actively working on a "passporting" initiative so multinational companies can use a single report across borders.
The Power of Digitization and XBRL: Information frameworks like the GHG Protocol must be paired with semantic data models like XBRL. This embeds structured context into the data, making it machine-readable, highly interoperable, and scalable. Structured data is the optimal foundation to enable artificial intelligence for analyzying climate and sustainability data.
Heavy Operational Burdens on Corporations: The shift from voluntary to mandatory reporting is forcing companies to transition to manual spreadsheets in favor of robust, scalable technology platforms. This transition requires investment and massive internal change management to educate departments across the business and ensure that all material reported data is backed by rigorous evidence and is assurance-ready.
Investor Utilization of Climate Data: Asset managers use climate disclosures to create qualitative climate transition scores and screen companies for ESG-focused portfolios. Investors are looking beyond the raw metrics to evaluate the overarching narrative and assess whether a company actually has a credible, detailed plan to manage its operational levers and achieve its net-zero ambitions.
The Crucial Role of Independent Assurance: As mandates inevitably push companies from limited assurance toward reasonable assurance (similar to a financial audit), third-party assurance is essential for establishing market trust. As regulatory regimes evolve to mandate assurance, standard setters are finalizing frameworks like the IAASB's ISSA 5000, which require assurance providers to meet strict ethical codes, independence rules, and quality management systems.
