Toward Global Alignment: Reflections from the 2025 ISSB Watchers Conference
In June, the Sustainable and Impact Finance Initiative and the Berkeley Center for Law and Business hosted the third annual ISSB Watchers Conference. Over two days, sustainability professionals, investors, regulators, and academics gathered to explore the future of sustainability reporting. Across panels and discussions, one theme stood out: sustainability-related financial disclosure is central to how capital markets understand risk, allocate resources, and plan for the future.
California’s Catalyst Role in Climate Disclosure
The location—California, the world’s fourth-largest economy—was especially timely and relevant. With a GDP exceeding $4 trillion and a long history of regulatory leadership, California is once again charting a bold path forward. Its Climate Corporate Accountability package (Senate Bills 253 and 261) will require thousands of companies doing business in the state to disclose their full greenhouse gas emissions and climate-related financial risks starting in 2027. These laws represent the first mandatory climate disclosure regime in the U.S. and are already inspiring similar proposals in states like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Washington. While designed to align with international standards such as the ISSB and GHG Protocol, these laws raise complex implementation questions around regulatory clarity, legal challenges, and scalability.
Against this backdrop, the ISSB Watchers Conference offered a forward-looking venue for dialogue about where global sustainability reporting is headed—and how regulatory, market, and institutional forces can work together to support progress.
Practical Challenges and Global Convergence
Hosted at Berkeley Haas—one of the oldest business schools in the U.S. and the only one founded by a woman—the conference reflects the school’s commitment to sustainability as a core leadership value. At Berkeley, sustainability is not just a topic of academic study; it’s integrated into our mission of developing leaders who put community and responsibility first. The event’s location was fitting: as we noted in the opening, “as California goes, so goes the nation”—and increasingly, the world.
Conference sessions explored the practical implementation of the International Sustainability Standards Board’s new disclosure standards (IFRS S1 and S2), how climate risk is being priced into markets, and the growing relevance of topics like biodiversity, human capital, and ecosystem services. While the setting was academic, the tone was decidedly pragmatic: how can investors get the information they need? How can companies report effectively without excessive burden? And how can policymakers ensure global coherence without sacrificing national priorities?
The conference attendees highlighted the need for investor-relevant, scalable, and interoperable disclosure systems that can adapt to different jurisdictions while maintaining compatibility. Participants emphasized that high-quality disclosures require not only data, but meaningful context—how sustainability issues are integrated into governance, strategy, and decision-making. Discussions also touched on persistent challenges, such as infrastructure gaps for smaller firms, the complexity of measuring indirect emissions (Scope 3), and the need for both qualitative and quantitative data to support decision-making.
Berkeley as a Catalyst for Continued Progress
California’s leadership featured prominently throughout the event—not only as the host jurisdiction, but as a case study in the opportunities and complexities of state-level regulation. While California’s disclosure laws aim to align with international frameworks like the GHG Protocol and ISSB standards, questions remain about legal challenges, regulatory clarity, and how these rules will interact with federal and international regimes. Speakers also pointed to lessons from California’s broader environmental history—including its cap-and-trade market and vehicle emissions standards—as a reminder that subnational regulation can accelerate global momentum.
Despite the uncertainties, there was a shared sense of urgency. With climate impacts intensifying and investor expectations rising, the time to act is now. Across discussions, participants returned to the idea that sustainability standards must balance credibility, comparability, and feasibility. The ISSB’s “building blocks” approach—offering a global baseline while allowing for jurisdiction-specific additions—was seen as a promising model for enabling convergence without requiring full uniformity.
Ultimately, the ISSB Watchers Conference reinforced Berkeley’s role as a hub for rigorous, cross-sector dialogue at the intersection of sustainability, regulation, and finance. It also highlighted the importance of continued collaboration: among investors seeking reliable disclosures, among companies navigating new requirements, and among regulators working to align fragmented frameworks. Berkeley’s convening role is grounded in our broader institutional commitment to lead responsibly, to bridge academic and real-world practice, and to support durable progress in sustainable and impact finance.
As sustainability disclosure continues to evolve, Berkeley will remain a convener of timely conversations and a champion for standards that are credible, decision-useful, and capable of driving meaningful progress.
