IRBA Adopts ISSA 5000 re Sustainability Assurance

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IRBA Adopts ISSA 5000 re Sustainability Assurance

• 26 February 2026
• Negotiating Tax Debt and Payment Arrangements with SARS
• South African Accounting Academy

Summary:
The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors’ (IRBA) Board has approved the International Standard on Sustainability Assurance (ISSA) 5000, General Requirements for Sustainability Assurance Engagements, for adoption, issue and prescription for use by auditors in South Africa.

Article:

The approval includes the Conforming and Consequential Amendments to Other International Standards. This follows the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board’s (IAASB) release of ISSA 5000 in November 2024. The new standard provides a unified global approach to addressing the growing market demand and calls from regulators and other stakeholders for trustworthy sustainability information to support stakeholder decisions. Accordingly, ISSA 5000 applies to sustainability information across any topic and under multiple reporting frameworks. 

Importantly, it is profession-agnostic, enabling both accountants and non-accountants to perform sustainability assurance engagements, provided that: 

• Their firms comply with the IAASB’s International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM) 1, Quality Management for Firms that Perform Audits or Reviews of Financial Statements, or Other Assurance or Related Services Engagements, or equivalent quality management requirements; and 
• Practitioners comply with the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) or ethical requirements deemed at least as demanding. 

ISSA 5000’s Relationship with Existing IAASB Standards 

The IRBA’s adoption of ISSA 5000 will have the following impact on the assurance landscape: 

• International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised), Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information: Practitioners will no longer apply this standard in the performance of a sustainability assurance engagement, as ISSA 5000 is now the overarching, self-contained standard for this topic. 
• ISAE 3410, Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements: This standard has been subsumed into ISSA 5000 and will be withdrawn upon the effective date of the new standard. 

As a consequence of these changes, related conforming amendments have been made to the following IAASB documents and standards: 

• Preface to the International Quality Management, Auditing, Review, Other Assurance, and Related Services Pronouncements; ISQM 1; ISQM 2, Engagement Quality Reviews; 
• International Standard on Review Engagements 2400 (Revised), Engagements to Review Historical Financial Statements; 
• ISAE 3000 (Revised); 
• International Standard on Related Services 4400 (Revised), Compilation Engagements; 
• International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 720, The Auditor’s Responsibilities Relating to Other Information; 
• ISA 805 (Revised), Special Considerations ─ Audits of Single Financial Statements and Specific Elements, Accounts or Items of a Financial Statement; and The International Framework for Assurance Engagements.

ISSA 5000 and the related conforming and consequential amendments become effective for assurance engagements on sustainability information reported for periods beginning on or after 15 December 2026, or as at a specific date on or after 15 December 2026. Early adoption is both permitted and encouraged.

The IAASB has also developed a basis for conclusions, implementation guide, fact sheet, frequently asked questions (FAQs), illustrative reports, FAQ video series and webinar series, to support the implementation of ISSA 5000. An IRBA communique in respect of its approval of the Final Pronouncement: Ethics Standards for Sustainability Assurance (Including Independence Standards) and Other Revisions Relating to Sustainability Assurance and Reporting, Including the Using the Work of an External Expert Standard, and the Related South African Enhancements will be published in due course.

Access the 231-page ISSA 5000 standard at https://www.irba.co.za/upload/IAASB-International-Standard-on-Sustainability-Assurance-ISSA-5000.pdf 

Access the formal IRBA Board Notice at https://www.irba.co.za/upload/BN%20690%20OF%202024.pdf 

Click here to download the IRBA Communiqué:

https://www.irba.co.za/upload/09_%20Communique_IRBA%20adopts%20ISSA%205000.pdf

Relevance to Auditors, Independent Reviewers & Accountants:

• As an auditor and independent reviewer, you need to comply with International Standards on Auditing and other Assurance Services (like ISSA 5000), and thus you need knowledge of newly revised standards that are approved as well as when they become effective.
• Failure to adhere to ISAs and ISSA may be interpreted as negligence and you could be held liable.
• Auditors, Independent Reviewers and Accountants should be aware of the latest standards that have been approved by standard-setting boards like the IAASB, when these are published, and when these standards are adopted by IRBA and become effective in South Africa.

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