The Benefits of Assuring Carbon Emissions Disclosures, produced by the Institute in association with Professor Roger Simnett, Head of the School of Accounting, University of New South Wales and co-chair of an international task force charged with developing guidelines for assurance engagements on carbon emission disclosures, recommends that a global assurance framework for carbon emissions disclosures is required in order to enhance the credibility of data underpinning an emissions trading scheme. 
 
The report states that adding an audit requirement will help to provide assurance that all data produced by companies, whose energy production, energy use, or greenhouse gas emissions meet certain thresholds, is credible.  
 
The objective of implementing an assurance model is to add credibility and reliability to emissions data that is monitored and reported in accordance with the guidelines.  
 
The International Audit and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) is currently undertaking a new project to address the specific requirements of assurance engagements on information related to carbon emissions. Any assurance standard or guidance will need to give attention to:

• The relevance, completeness, reliability, neutrality and clarity of the information being reported
• Whether either ‘reasonable assurance’ (i.e audit) or ’limited assurance’ (i.e review) engagements are appropriate
• The methods available to quantify, monitor and report on carbon emissions and the uncertainties around these methods
• The need for an engagement team to include or have access to specific expertise in the evolving legal/regulatory/trading market environment and determination of appropriate carbon emission boundaries.

• Institute: The Benefits of Assuring Carbon Emissions Disclosures paper
• University of New South Wales: website