The International Auditing and Assurance
Standards Board (IAASB) has released a landmark standard disclosing
a company’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emission information.
The International Standard on Assurance
Engagements (ISAE) 3410 addresses practitioners’ responsibilities
in identifying, assessing, and responding to risks of material
misstatement when engaged to report on GHG statements.
“Today, there is clear and growing demand for
companies to disclose their environmental impacts and initiatives
and to report detailed emissions information, often through GHG
statements. As this demand increases, public confidence in assured
GHG emissions information becomes more significant, if not
essential,” IAASB chairman Arnold Schilder said
IAASB technical director James Gunn said ISAE
3410 is a landmark standard in many respects.
“It responds to societal demands for standards
that support quality in assurance services in areas other than
financial reporting. It deals with engagements that largely need to
be undertaken by a multidisciplinary team, where the assurance
practitioner needs to integrate experts—in engineering or
environmental science, for example—into various stages of the
engagement,” he said.
