The Securities Commission announced on the deferment to the start of mandatory reasonable assurance for Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions disclosures by one year, giving companies more time to strengthen reporting systems and data quality.
The Advisory Committee on Sustainability Reporting (ACSR), chaired by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), said Group 1 entities will now be required to comply for annual reporting periods beginning on or after Jan 1, 2028, instead of Jan 1, 2027.
The corresponding timelines for Group 2 and Group 3 entities will also be pushed back by one year to 2029 and 2030, respectively.
Under the original National Sustainability Reporting Framework (NSRF), reasonable assurance had been targeted from 2027 for Group 1, 2028 for Group 2 and 2029 for Group 3, subject to further consultation.
The ACSR said the extension followed a review by the Minority Shareholders Watch Group and Climate Governance Malaysia of the first 91 Group 1 listed issuers reporting under the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards.
The study found that while companies had made progress in areas such as governance and climate-risk identification, further improvement was needed in the quality and decision-usefulness of disclosures, particularly in linking climate risks to financial performance.
The additional year is intended to allow companies to strengthen their reporting processes, internal controls and underlying sustainability data before mandatory reasonable assurance takes effect.
Listed issuers will meanwhile continue to be required under Bursa Malaysia’s Main and ACE Market Listing Requirements to disclose whether their sustainability statements have been reviewed internally or independently assured.
The ACSR also said any independent sustainability assurance will now have to be conducted using International Standard on Sustainability Assurance 5000 (ISSA 5000) as the designated recognised assurance standard.
The previously used ISAE 3000 (Revised) and relevant ISO standards will no longer be recommended for this purpose. ISSA 5000 was developed as a global baseline standard for sustainability assurance engagements.
The ACSR will also issue a Sustainability Assurance Guide to support assurance providers and promote more consistent implementation of the requirements.
