ACCA welcomes the opportunity to provide views in response to the Australian Accounting Standards Board’s (AASB’s) exposure draft ED SR1, Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS) – Disclosure of Climate-related Financial Information.
ACCA commends the AASB for the pivotal role it is playing in advancing Australia’s sustainability reporting agenda. By using the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards as a baseline, AASB has championed a crucial step forward, bringing Australia sustainability reporting into the spotlight internationally.
We note the difficult task that the AASB is presented with, having to strike a delicate balance between ensuring that the standard is internationally aligned and, at the same time, caters appropriately to the Australian context.
We welcome the proposed standard and cannot overstate its significance as a crucial step towards driving globally aligned sustainability reporting. We are hopeful that this will catalyse the changes needed to inform a deeper awareness, and a healthy posture around sustainability reporting themes and practice, including but not limited to existential threats arising from climate change, both within the reporting entities themselves, and the broader stakeholder base of users in Australia and beyond.
In forming our responses, we draw from multiple consultations with a broad stakeholder base, including participants from academia, industry bodies, public practice and thought leaders in the sustainability reporting field.
To read the response in full, please download the consultation response document on this page.