Proposed International Standard on Sustainability Assurance 5000, General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements

Including Proposed Conforming and Consequential Amendments to Other IAASB Standards

IAASB

Aug 2, 2023 | Exposure Drafts and Consultation Papers

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Comments due by: Dec 1, 2023

External assurance plays a key role in enhancing trust and confidence in financial and non-financial reporting.

With the goal of enhancing the trust and confidence investors, regulators and other stakeholders have in sustainability information, this proposed standard will serve as a comprehensive, stand-alone standard suitable for any sustainability assurance engagements. It will apply to sustainability information reported across any sustainability topic and prepared under multiple frameworks. The proposed standard is also profession agnostic, supporting its use by both professional accountant and non-accountant assurance practitioners.

How to Share Feedback

The IAASB encourages all stakeholders to submit their comments electronically using the below Response Template to share their feedback. Respondents do not need to answer all the questions in the Explanatory Memorandum and can instead choose to answer only those questions relevant to them or those questions for which they have specific comments.

The IAASB recognizes that certain stakeholders, such as sustainability reporting users and preparers, may wish to share views or provide input at a more overall or less technical level than what the questions in the Explanatory Memorandum and Response Template may require or imply.

To accommodate this, the IAASB developed a stakeholder survey: bit.ly/ISSA5000survey. This user-friendly tool helps the IAASB obtain the views of stakeholders who may not ordinarily respond to IAASB consultations, including preparers of sustainability information, those with the oversight of its preparation, investors and other users of the sustainability information, sustainability reporting standard setters and members of the academic community. Survey responses will be aggregated and analyzed in conjunction with other feedback received. (To help stakeholders prepare their survey responses, the questions are available as well here.)

Webinars and Events

The IAASB is holding a range of engaging webinars and events to enhance understanding of ISSA 5000 and encourage participation in the public consultation.

IAASB webinars: Proposed International Standard on Sustainability Assurance – What Practitioners and Regulators Need to Know, September 6 at 1 pm ET and September 7 at 8 am ET
Corporate Disclosures webinar: Introducing a new global standard for sustainability assurance, September 22 at 3 pm BST / 10 am ET
IFAC Sustainability Summit–Asia Pacific, hosted in partnership with AFA, CAPA, SAFA and Jeju Group, September 27 and September 28 (note, ISSA 5000 is on agenda for day 2)
IFAC & Accountancy Europe in-person event: Preparing for High-Quality Sustainability Assurance Engagements, Oct. 3 at 2 pm CEST in Brussels