The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) is making significant progress to develop a new assurance standard on green house gases statements. It recently released a Consultation Paper seeking views on key issues in developing that standard.
"Having reliable information is key to global efforts to reduce emissions and stabilize the level of carbon in the atmosphere," emphasizes Arnold Schilder, IAASB Chairman. "We are actively seeking to enhance the credibility of GHG information because of the importance to the public interest of decisions being made on the basis of that information. Our consultation will help inform the development of a robust standard in support of this goal."
"A growing number of countries are developing, or have developed, carbon emissions trading schemes under which public reporting of information about emissions inventories, and assurance thereon, has economic, political, and social significance," explains James Gunn, IAASB Technical Director, adding, "The IAASB's project seeks to enhance the consistency and quality of performance by practitioners on assurance engagements to report on this information, whether produced for regulators, legislators, investors, or other interested parties."
Entitled Assurance on a Greenhouse Gas Statement, the Consultation Paper asks a series of questions addressing such matters as: the form of assurance report that users would find most useful; the nature and extent of requirements; how a standard should best integrate with regulatory requirements; and technical aspects of applying the assurance process to GHG emissions. The IAASB intends to use the feedback from the consultation to develop an exposure draft of a proposed new assurance standard on GHG statements for release in 2010.
All stakeholders are encouraged to respond to the Consultation Paper, either in its entirety or to select questions that are of special interest to them.
Comments on the Consultation Paper are requested by February 19, 2010