AUASB response to the IAASB on the Proposed International Standard on Sustainability Assurance

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

The AUASB has now submitted its response to the IAASB on the Proposed International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ED-5000).  The AUASB thanks all stakeholders for their valuable input informing the AUASB’s response. A copy of the response is available here. 

The AUASB is overall supportive of ED-5000 as an over-arching standard on sustainability assurance that can be used as a global baseline. While supportive, the AUASB has: 

1. Strong reservations on the ability of the standard to be applied by all assurance practitioners and considers that ED-5000 would not be very accessible or easily understood by non-accountants with no knowledge of the IAASB standards;  
2. Strongly disagrees with the approach to quality management and ethics underpinning ED-5000; and 
3. Anticipates some practical challenges that practitioners will face in implementing ISSA 5000 mainly relating to differentiation of work effort for limited and reasonable assurance, extent of pre-acceptance work, using the work of experts, and the critical need for sustainability competency. 

The AUASB will continue to monitor the progression of ED-5000 through to finalisation of the standard, expected September 2024. In the interim, the AUASB will be considering whether to issue a standard and guidance to supplement the final ISSA 5000 under the Australian climate reporting framework (governance, strategy, emissions, other metrics, scenario analysis and transition plans). This standard may include enhanced requirements and guidance for the use of experts, on materiality and about information and assurance received and given through value chains.