An IFAC Content Series
IFAC's Vision for High-Quality Sustainability Assurance
Sustainability-related disclosure is finally taking its rightful place within the corporate reporting ecosystem, through global and jurisdiction-specific initiatives. In order to be trusted, sustainability disclosure must be subject to high-quality, independent, external assurance.
This vision addresses the importance of global standards, regulation that supports decision-useful disclosure, and the value of an interconnected approach to sustainability and financial information reporting and assurance.
The State of Play in Sustainability Assurance benchmarking study captures and analyzes the extent to which companies are reporting and obtaining assurance over their sustainability disclosures, which assurance standards are being used, and which companies are providing the assurance service. The 2019-2021 Trends & Analysis report marks our third annual benchmarking study of global practice in sustainability disclosure and its assurance.
For the third consecutive year, our analysis indicates that while the frequency of reporting ESG information is very high and the incidence of assurance is on an upward trend, there continues to be a meaningful difference between reporting and assurance rates.
-
The State of Play: Sustainability Disclosure & Assurance 2019-2022, Trends & Analysis
February 22, 2024 -
The State of Play: Sustainability Disclosure & Assurance 2019-2021, Trends & Analysis
February 27, 2023 -
The State of Play in Reporting and Assurance of Sustainability Information: Update 2019-2020 Data & Analysis
July 28, 2022 -
The State of Play in Sustainability Assurance
June 23, 2021
Additional Resources
What to Expect from Sustainability Assurance
While companies work diligently to develop governance structures and the processes, systems and controls needed to support sustainability reporting and assurance, users of this information should expect different levels of assurance than is the norm for financial statement audits until the market fully matures.
A Deep Dive into Sustainability Assurance Engagements
This study, part of the State of Play Series, enhances understanding of current market practice for the assurance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG or sustainability) information, with a focus on who conducts assurance engagements, what standards are used, the scope of disclosure being assured, and how various assurance practitioners apply internationally recognized standards set by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).
The State of Play: Beyond the G20
The State of Play Beyond the G20 expands IFAC's sustainability disclosure and assurance data to 20 additional jurisdictions beyond the G20 previously reported on. The State of Play Beyond the G20 focuses on the Global South with data from three jurisdictions from Latin America, six in Africa and Middle East, and four in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as six smaller-sized economies within the European Economic Area and Switzerland.
The State of Play in Reporting & Assurance of Sustainability Information: 2019-2020 Data & Analysis
IFAC's David Madon details the updated State of Play in Reporting and Assurance of Sustainability Information: Update 2019-2020 Data & Analysis