A new international framework, launched jointly by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA), aims to support effective implementation of the organisations’ respective sustainability standards.
The standards — the IAASB’s International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000 and IESBA’s International Ethics Standards for Sustainability Assurance (IESSA) — are intended to establish clear expectations in sustainability reporting and assurance by providing more specific examples for practitioners and organisations, a news release said.
Taken together, the standards share five common goals, according to the release:
- Equipping global markets with a cohesive package of standards. After robust and close coordination, the IAASB and IESBA developed comprehensive, interoperable global standards for assurance, ethics, and independence for sustainability assurance engagements.
- Offering a global baseline and levelling the playing field by meeting market demands, along with regulatory calls and expectations for profession-agnostic global standards.
- Providing a framework-neutral approach that allows ISSA 5000 and IESSA to be applied in relation to sustainability information prepared under any suitable sustainability reporting framework.
- Promoting informed decision-making based on trust and independently assured sustainability information.
- Mitigating risks of fraud, including greenwashing, and noncompliance with laws and regulations.
Both standards will become effective for reporting periods starting on or after 15 December 2026, with early adoption encouraged.
LEARNING RESOURCE
- AICPA & CIMA’s seven-week course, in partnership with the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, offers 26.5 CPE credits and starts 5 February.
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.