The State of Play in Sustainability Assurance

As the drive toward a global system for sustainability-related reporting continues, investors, regulators and policymakers are turning their attention to the important role of assurance in ensuring high-quality reporting. With the growing importance of—and reliance on—sustainability information, low-quality assurance is an emerging investor protection and financial stability risk.

IFAC and the AICPA & CIMA embarked on this global benchmarking study, in partnership with Audit Analytics, to better understand 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. Significant differences in practices across different jurisdictions show a situation that is still evolving, much like the road to a consistent set of standards for reporting sustainability information.