Please post your comments related to the indicators for Goal C and Target 1-13 in this thread.

Can someone please point me to a definition of what constitutes an "issuing authority" under the IRCC system?

This is the authority that issues the permit or equivalent at the time of access, normally the Competent National Authority (CNA). When information on a permit is published in the ABS Clearing-House an internationally recognized certificate of compliance (IRCC) gets created. The issuing authority of the permit is one of the key mandatory information that needs to be included in the ABS CH for the constitution of the IRCC.
You can find more information on the IRCC here: https://absch.cbd.int/en/kb/tags/monitoring/About-the-Internationally-Recognized-Certificate-of-Compliance/5be1fe5a9f888d00010aaccb
If you have any more questions you can contact us in the absch@cbd.int

My name is Joseph Henry Vogel. I am a professor who has applied the economics of information to the CBD since the early 1990s.  I have  worked out  policy implications for the Global Multilateral Benefit-Sharing Mechanism in open-access refereed publications,  under the suggested modality of "bounded openness over natural information".

Data on Indicator C.1 "Monetary benefits" in bilateral contracts will conflate the observed commercial value of a genetic resource with its potential commercial value under multilateralism. Competition eliminates "economic rents" whenever the principal agent is not unique to the contracting Party.  For an explanation of economic rents, please see my co-authored 2022 PLANTS PEOPLE PLANET Comment (https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10239) or 2021 Report from The South Centre
https://www.southcentre.int/tag/global-multilateral-benefit-sharing-mechanism-gmbsm/.

Analogies are illustrative. Just as the current potential commercial value of movies, music and software is not indicated by the revenue from ultra-cheap pirated copies, neither is the value of genetic resources indicated by the benefits concluded in bilateral contracts.  The observed commercial value of a genetic resource is only the potential commercial value when the principal agent is unique to the contracting Party.

What to do?  Indicator C.1 should report data with a parenthetical statement as to whether the observed value is rent-free or rent-inclusive. For example, an Amazonian country may report  "0.1% royalty (rent-free)" for a principal agent from a species found throughout the neo-tropics  and "10% royalty (rent-inclusive)" from an endemic species that has no other species in its genus or genera in its family.