The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) has published the final version of the International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000. IAASB Chair Tom Seidenstein called on policymakers and practitioners to start adopting ISSA 5000 in their local frameworks, adding that the board will release guidance and conduct outreach activities from January 2025 to support implementation. The standard, approved in September after consultation last year, offers a framework for any sustainability assurance engagements. It can be applied to sustainability information reported across any sustainability topic and prepared under multiple frameworks. ISSA 5000 is designed to be “profession agnostic”, the IAASB said, meaning it can be used by both professional accountants and non-accountant assurance practitioners. The new standard comes as companies are increasingly reporting on sustainability and climate-related risks, opportunities and impacts in line with new sustainability disclosure standards and regulatory requirements being implemented across jurisdictions. Many incoming sustainability reporting regimes require external assurance. Companies also face rising demands from investors to provide independent third-party assurance on their sustainability claims. Seidenstein said the standard creates a global baseline that can work in every jurisdiction, including the EU due to its compatibility with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. He said ISSA 5000 addresses both limited and reasonable assurance engagements, and “works with both traditional materiality and double materiality concepts”. In a statement, the International Organization of Securities Commissions declared its support for ISSA 5000, calling the final standard an “important milestone” which can “support high-quality assurance over sustainability-related information and may enhance consistency, comparability and reliability of sustainability-related information provided to the market.”
📣 ISSA 5000 Update: We’re pleased to share that we’ve published the International Standard on Sustainability Assurance 5000 (ISSA 5000) and it is now available on the IAASB website: https://t.co/XQMo9ZQOXA
What’s on the horizon? Watch our video for what to expect in 2025. pic.twitter.com/2ypkwZZ6R6— IAASB (@IAASB_News) November 12, 2024
