Joint event held to discuss the opportunities and challenges of audit and assurance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information

  • ACCA (UK Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) (lt green) Image

03 May, 2021

At a joint ACCA, ECIIA, Deloitte and Accountancy Europe event held on 29 April 2021, EU and global experts discussed the opportunities and challenges of audit and assurance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information.

The discussions revealed three main challenges:

  1. Time: climate change requires an urgent response; and investors seek data now
  2. Skills: CFOs, governance bodies, internal and statutory auditors need to ensure they have adequate knowledge and access extend their scope of responsibility to ESG reporting and assurance
  3. Investment: significant investment will be needed to design and issue standards, to implement reporting processes and tools, and to enhance audit and assurance capabilities

To meet users’ needs and support informed decision-making, the ESG information reported needs some level of assurance.  The event provided the opportunity to launch a new Guide on Natural Capital Management, developed by ACCA, ECIIA and Deloitte. The Guide includes the key principles that could inform natural capital internal audit assignments and external assurance engagements.  The guide outlines a four-step approach to assignments which has been developed using the insight from standard setters, and from internal and external audit experts.

The Guide is available on the ACCA website here.

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.