IFRS S1 (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information)
IFRS S1 is the ISSB's general sustainability disclosure standard, issued in June 2023. It sets the rules that apply to every sustainability topic a company reports on: which risks and opportunities to cover, how to organize the disclosure around governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets, and how the disclosure must connect to financial statements.
IFRS S1 is the framework standard. It does not name a topic. Instead it tells a company how to identify the sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect its cash flows, access to finance, or cost of capital, and how to disclose them. IFRS S2 applies the same structure to climate.
The core requirement is connectivity. Sustainability disclosures under IFRS S1 must cover the same reporting entity and the same period as financial statements, use consistent data and assumptions, and be published at the same time as part of general purpose financial reports. A standalone sustainability report published months after the annual report does not satisfy IFRS S1.
IFRS S1 uses the four TCFD pillars as its structure: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. It also requires a company to refer to and consider the applicability of the SASB Standards when deciding which risks, opportunities, and metrics to disclose. A company can conclude that a SASB metric does not apply, but it has to have looked.
Materiality under IFRS S1 is financial materiality only. Information is material if omitting or misstating it could influence the decisions of investors, lenders, and other creditors. That is narrower than the double materiality test the EU uses under CSRD.
The standard is effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024, but it binds nobody until a jurisdiction adopts it. Around 40 jurisdictions had adopted IFRS S1 or announced plans to as of September 2026, with several, including the UK and Canada, allowing companies to report on climate under IFRS S2 first and defer the wider S1 disclosures for a year or more.
Frequently asked questions
What is IFRS S1? +
IFRS S1 is the ISSB's general standard for sustainability-related financial disclosure, issued in June 2023. It sets the structure, materiality test, and connectivity rules that apply to every sustainability topic a company reports on. IFRS S2, the climate standard, sits on top of it.
What is the difference between IFRS S1 and IFRS S2? +
IFRS S1 covers the general requirements for any sustainability topic: what to disclose, how to structure it, and how it connects to financial statements. IFRS S2 applies those requirements to climate specifically and adds detailed climate metrics, including scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Can a company apply IFRS S2 without IFRS S1? +
Under the standards as issued, IFRS S2 must be applied together with IFRS S1. Several jurisdictions, including the UK and Canada, have added a transition relief that lets companies report on climate first and defer the non-climate S1 disclosures.
Related terms
IFRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures)
IFRS S2 is the ISSB's climate disclosure standard, issued in June 2023 alongside IFRS S1. It fully incorporates the TCFD recommendations and adds what TCFD left optional: scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions measured under the GHG Protocol, quantified financial effects of climate risks, climate resilience assessment, and industry-based metrics derived from the SASB Standards.
ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board)
The ISSB is a body under the IFRS Foundation that issues global sustainability disclosure standards. IFRS S1 (General Requirements) and IFRS S2 (Climate-related Disclosures) set the baseline for sustainability reporting worldwide, designed for investor-focused, financially material disclosures.
SASB Standards (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board)
The SASB Standards identify the sustainability topics most likely to affect financial performance in 77 industries, and pair each topic with disclosure metrics. Originally published by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, they have been owned and maintained by the ISSB since 2022, and IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 require companies to refer to and consider them.
TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures)
TCFD is a framework developed by the Financial Stability Board for disclosing climate-related financial risks and opportunities. It organizes recommendations around four pillars: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Though the TCFD disbanded in 2023, its framework lives on through ISSB S2 and CSRD/ESRS.
Materiality Assessment
A materiality assessment is a structured process for identifying and prioritizing the sustainability topics most relevant to an organization and its stakeholders. Under CSRD, it specifically refers to the double materiality assessment (DMA) that determines which ESRS topics require full disclosure.
CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is the European Union's mandatory sustainability reporting law. It requires companies operating in the EU above certain thresholds to disclose environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information according to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), with third-party assurance.