India should adopt a phased approach to strengthen climate-related disclosures under its Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting framework to better meet the needs of investors and lenders, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said in a note on Tuesday.
It proposed a two-stage roadmap for integrating climate transition planning into the existing BRSR framework, arguing that the current reporting regime lacks the forward-looking, financially integrated information increasingly sought by capital providers.
The recommendations build on two earlier IEEFA studies. One assessed climate transition plan disclosures by 33 Indian companies across six high-emitting sectors, while the other compared BRSR requirements with the International Sustainability Standards Board's IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures standard using IEEFA's transition plan assessment framework.
According to IEEFA, the studies found that while BRSR provides a strong foundation for sustainability reporting, it does not adequately capture the transition plan information needed by investors and lenders to assess companies' climate strategies and associated financial risks.
Based on those findings, IEEFA said the Securities and Exchange Board of India should work with companies to embed transition planning within the existing BRSR framework through a phased implementation rather than creating a separate disclosure regime.
The proposed approach would strengthen existing reporting by reorganizing current disclosures, incorporating a limited set of priority metrics, and introducing additional requirements over time as companies improve their reporting capabilities, it said.
IEEFA said integrating transition planning into BRSR through a phased process, supported by clear regulatory guidance, would improve the credibility and usefulness of corporate climate transition disclosures in India.
Under the first phase, companies would provide a concise transition plan snapshot that consolidates information already required under BRSR alongside climate-related data that some companies currently disclose voluntarily outside the framework.
The second phase would introduce a targeted set of additional disclosure metrics, prioritizing those that are material, practical to report, and aligned with the International Financial Reporting Standards Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the Transition Plan Taskforce framework.
IEEFA said the phased rollout would mirror the implementation of BRSR Core, enabling companies to develop internal capabilities, data systems and assurance practices while allowing regulators to refine reporting guidance over time.