April 1, 2026

For most companies, the first wave of climate disclosure was about publication. The next wave is about infrastructure. In 2026 and 2027, the real competitive edge will not come from producing a polished sustainability report at the end of the cycle. It will come from having an IFRS S2-ready data architecture that can generate decision-useful, comparable, and assurance-ready climate information on demand. That shift matters because capital markets are moving from curiosity to calibration. They increasingly want climate data they can price, compare, test, and connect to financial prospects. IFRS S2 was built for exactly that purpose: to provide information about climate-related risks and opportunities that is useful to users of general purpose financial reports in making decisions about providing resources to the entity.

The infrastructure problem is no longer just a capital problem. It is a preparation problem. The World Bank says developing countries need infrastructure investment equivalent to about 4.5% of GDP each year, and its own guidance emphasizes that attracting private capital depends on creating bankable project pipelines. At the same time, recent G20-linked work on infrastructure preparation notes that global infrastructure investment needs could reach US$18.5 trillion by 2040, with emerging markets and developing economies accounting for roughly 70% of the shortfall, while private infrastructure investment in those economies has remained stagnant over the past decade. Climate Policy Initiative has made the same point from the finance side: private investors still face policy, currency, off-taker, liquidity, and technology risks, as well as a lack of project pipelines.