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Good afternoon. Dear guests and friends, it's an amazing pleasure for me, an honour to stand in front of you today. Seeing so many familiar faces from when we started our work together three years ago. A few days ago, I had a conversation with my doctors that finally let me come here and stop my physiotherapy exercises for a few days because I wanted to be here with you this week in Beijing.

Celebrating trust and leadership

The first reason I wanted to be here is to say thank you. A huge thank you to all of you here in the first rows, but also in the audience and beyond, online. Thank you for your trust—the trust that you have placed in the work that the ISSB, myself, the two Vice-Chairs and board members and our staff at the IFRS Foundation have done to deliver the ISSB Standards. That trust was evidenced last week when we issued the inaugural jurisdictional profiles and snapshots for 33 jurisdictions around the world that have put their trust—your trust—in our work. You have adopted or decided to otherwise use the Standards to ensure the proper and resilient functioning of capital markets, of economies, of foreign direct investment and of trade for your jurisdictions.

So, a huge thank you for that trust. Also thank you for your contribution, for working with us together. We have learned a lot from our interactions, collective and bilateral, with the global financial community, and the regulators and supervisors, through your participation in our engagement events and consultations. These Standards are more your Standards than you might think: we co-built them with you.

And finally, I would like to thank you for your leadership—the individual and collective leadership of this financial community. I remember being with my colleague Ndidi three years ago in 2022 at COP27 when Nigeria announced that they would be an early adopter. We had barely started our work, but already the trust was there. But more than trust, that was leadership. I also remember a year later, Julia from Hong Kong, during the Boao Forum here in China in March 2023, announcing that Hong Kong would adopt IFRS S2 for climate disclosures, even before the Standards were finalised. And only a few months later, we finished the Standards and IOSCO endorsed them. That is leadership. And I just want to say a huge thank you for that leadership to those jurisdictions and those people that stood up and said we want to be a part of this adventure.

I have to mention here that IOSCO, its Chair, its committees and taskforce, and the regional committees have been incredibly supportive of that journey. The endorsement of IOSCO a few weeks after we finalised the Standards in July 2023 paved the way for adoption by its members. And now we have reached the point, as I just mentioned, where 33 countries and regions have been profiled. We know there are more coming.

Leadership is contagious. IOSCO’s Global Emerging Market Committee created an Adoption Network for the ISSB Standards at IOSCO’s annual meeting last year, and there are already more than 30 jurisdictions that are part of this adoption network and considering adoption. A few of them have very large capital markets. South Africa, Saudi Arabia and India are all part of that group that are considering the adoption of our Standards. So, this is leadership.

We are here in Beijing, and there is one particular example of leadership that I would like to point out: that of the Ministry of Finance of China. You have changed the game. China obviously has been involved since the very, very early days of the inception of the ISSB. We had our MOU signed; we established our Beijing Office. China very thoughtfully came up with a unified strategy for sustainability standards here that paved the way to the convergence of China’s standards and the ISSB Standards. That convergence was part of the strategy. I’m very impressed, Director General Lin, to see you for the second time in six months at a conference here in Beijing, and by the progress that was made right after the previous conference, with the finalisation of the Basic Standard, the publication of the application guidance and the imminent finalisation of the climate standards after the exposure draft of last month. That is leadership, and, again, a huge thank you to everyone for that leadership.

A shared responsibility

The next thing I would like to say is that this collective achievement in adoption now comes with a shared responsibility. There is obviously for all of us at the ISSB, and at the IFRS Foundation, a profound feeling of responsibility for the trust that you have placed in our work. Our responsibility in the next several years will now be to support the jurisdictions, the investors, the companies and the assurance profession to ensure that the language of ISSB Standards is properly used. And that it finally can be decision-useful and enable capital allocation decisions by the capital markets, who will make better decisions with that language.

We will support you as much as we can. This is the priority for the ISSB’s engagement teams in the regions. We are trying to ensure, while facing so much demand, that we can be of support to all of you. I want to add one more specific thing. We also understand that all these jurisdictions have a lot to digest. We want to be very proportionate in the way we add more standard-setting and technical work. We will add it only to the extent that it allows better application and implementation of IFRS S1 and IFRS S2. Because now those Standards are going to be used in 40 jurisdictions, we cannot just add more if you are not prepared to take more.

The other side of the shared responsibility is you—all of you, jurisdictions, regulators, stock exchanges, investors, companies, the assurance profession. This is your language now. The growth of the ISSB has been horizontal over the last three years, growing and growing from one jurisdiction to another across the world. But now what needs to happen is vertical growth in each of the jurisdictions. How do you start the journey that will gradually capture more capital, more sectors, banks, listed companies, private capital? Each of you will go in the right direction at the right speed. But that vertical growth is what will ultimately make the impact that we are all seeking together. This is your first responsibility.

Your second priority is to protect the global baseline of ISSB Standards. This common language that 40 jurisdictions have decided to use is a treasure. It’s a common good. We are in a world where there might be other interests, and there are a lot of other things that happen that are not about language, about dialogue or about building together. I feel privileged to be part of an adventure that is building on multilateralism with leaders like those that are in this room and beyond. Our shared responsibility is to protect and grow that language together.

Strengthening our global community

Because it is a shared responsibility, and there is a community around that language, we have an opportunity to revisit the way we engage with each other in the months to come. How do we work with all these jurisdictions that are now piloting, field-testing and applying our language? How do we work more directly with you on some critical topics than we have in the past? We have Advisory Forums; we have a Jurisdictional Working Group. They were very useful for the first three years, but we did not expect to achieve so much in terms of adoption in only three years.

So, we now need to think about how we can take responsibility for ensuring that this community works together. I commit to coming back to you on this at the appropriate stage.

With that, I would like to say, again, a big thank you. I'm super happy to be here in Beijing for a few days before coming back and dealing with my leg. But what is most important is all the legs that will move the Standards here.

Thank you so much!