Glossary term
Cluster B · B20
Tier 2
AASB
Definition
The Australian Accounting Standards Board is the standard setter that issues the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards, including AASB S2 Climate-related Disclosures. It also issues the accounting standards governing the financial report the sustainability report sits beside. It is an Australian Government agency, and its standards have legal force through the Corporations Act.
Australian Accounting Standards Board
· established under the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 ·
In force
On this page
In practice
The AASB matters to a captured entity for one structural reason: its standards are not guidance. The Corporations Act requires the sustainability report to comply with the sustainability standards, and those standards are AASB S2. Non-compliance with AASB S2 is non-compliance with the Act.
What it has issued for climate reporting. AASB S2 Climate-related Disclosures, which is mandatory for captured entities. AASB S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information, which is available for voluntary application in Australia and is not mandated. AASB S2025-1 Amendments to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosures, issued December 2025, effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027 with early application permitted.
The Australian modification role is the part worth understanding. AASB S2 is based on IFRS S2 but is not identical to it. The AASB incorporated the ISSB standard and then made Australian changes, the most consequential being the removal of the industry-based metrics requirement as an interim measure pending an Australian industry metrics project. Australian-specific paragraphs are prefixed “Aus” in the standard text. A group with an overseas parent reporting under IFRS S2 cannot assume the two texts say the same thing.
A citation trap specific to AASB S2. The standard contains two separate B-numbering series. Appendix B is the climate application guidance: the scenario analysis guidance at B1 to B18 lives here. Appendix D carries general requirements drawn from AASB S1 and its paragraph numbering restarts at B1. A reference to “B15” is ambiguous unless the appendix is named, and this is the easiest citation error to make in Australian climate reporting. Always write “Appendix B paragraph B15” or “Appendix D paragraph B15”.
What the assurer does with it
The assurer’s criteria are the AASB standards, so the first question in any engagement is which version of which standard the report is prepared against. They expect the basis of preparation to name it explicitly, including whether AASB S1 has been voluntarily applied and whether any Appendix C first-year relief has been taken. For a Group 2 entity whose first reporting period begins 1 July 2026, the report is prepared under the pre-amendment text and moves to the amended text the following year, and the assurer will check the basis of preparation names the right one. They reject a basis of preparation that cites “the ASRS” or “AASB standards” generically without naming the standard and version applied.
Commonly confused with
The AUASB, which issues assurance standards, and the ASRS itself, which is the name of the family of standards the AASB issues rather than a body. Also confused with the ISSB, the international board that issues IFRS S1 and S2, which the AASB draws from but is not part of.
Timing and relief
AASB S2025-1 Amendments to Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosures was issued in December 2025 and is effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027, with early application permitted.
Sources
1
2
3
Review status
Review required
Last reviewed
15 September 2026
Editorial pass, unsigned
Reviewer required
Registered company auditor
Next scheduled review
1 January 2027
Part of
Cluster B, Regulation, capture and thresholds / Regulation, capture and timing
26 terms on who has to report, when their first report is due, and what the regime is built on.
Related terms
The family of standards this board issues
When the mandatory standard applies, and to whom
The board on the assurance side, routinely confused with this one
Related questions
Do we have to do mandatory climate reporting?
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You must prepare a sustainability report if you already lodge a financial report under Chapter 2M of the Corporations Act and you also meet one of the size, NGER or funds-under-management tests in section 292A. Both gates have to be passed: with no Chapter 2M obligation, section 292A never engages however large you are. Which of the three reporting groups you fall into decides which financial year is your first.
Do we need comparatives in our first report?
+
No. AASB S2 relieves first-time reporters from disclosing comparative information in their first annual reporting period, and comparatives are required from year two. That means your year-one numbers and working papers will be looked at again, so build the year-one file as if it will be re-examined.
Other terms in this cluster
AASB