The Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AUASB) board meeting on 16 December 2024 confirmed the final phasing for mandatory assurance of information in sustainability reports.
A final draft standard incorporating these changes will be presented to the AUASB for approval in late January 2025.
Background
On 17 September 2024, the AUASB released an Exposure Draft for a Proposed Australian Standard on Sustainability Assurance ASSA 5010 Timeline for Audits and Reviews of Information in Sustainability Reports under the Corporations Act 2001 (ED 02/24). ED 02/24 outlined a proposed timeline for when information in a sustainability report prepared in accordance with Chapter 2M of the Corporations Act 2001 would be subject to reasonable or limited assurance.
Submissions in response to ED 02/24 informed changes to the proposed timeline for the development of the final phasing model. Changes to the proposed phasing was presented and agreed to by AUASB members at the board meeting on 16 December 2024.
A final draft of ASSA 5010 Timeline for Audits or Reviews of Information in Sustainability Reports Under the Corporations Act 2001 incorporating these changes will be presented to the AUASB for approval at a meeting in late January 2025.
Final phasing model and key highlights
The final phasing model is set out in the below table, with the following key highlights:
Year 1 of assurance
- The extent of assurance will be limited assurance for Governance, Strategy (specific paragraphs in AASB S2 Climate-related disclosures (AASB S2)), and Scope 1 & Scope 2 emissions.
- Assurance requirements over ‘Strategy (risk and opportunities)’ will cover specifically AASB S2 paragraphs 9(a), 10(a) and 10(b) only.
- There will be two ‘Year 1’ assurance requirements for Group 1 entities with financial years commencing 1 January 2025 to 30 June 2025. This is because Year 2 assurance requirements for Group 1 entities affect financial periods commencing between 1 July 2026 and 30 June 2027.
Year 2 and 3 of assurance
- The extent of assurance is limited assurance for all Sustainability Report disclosures.
Year 4 onwards
- The extent of assurance is reasonable assurance for all Sustainability Report disclosures.
The AUASB will monitor the implementation of assurance phasing on an ongoing basis to determine whether any amendments to the assurance requirements set out in ASSA 5010 are necessary.
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How we can help
Grant Thornton has a team of sustainability reporting and assurance specialists who understand the intricacies of the AASB S2 reporting requirements. Our team can work closely with you to navigate through the process of getting ready for AASB S2 reporting, including:
- sustainability-related and climate-related risk and opportunity guidance;
- reporting gap identification;
- greenhouse gas emissions guidance;
- climate-related scenario analysis
- sustainability and climate reporting support;
- training and education;
- assurance readiness; and
- voluntary sustainability assurance.
