Editorial: Climate-related Disclosures

Abstract

As editors we are proud to compile the papers for this issue of Australian Accounting Review, the third for 2022. We have included five research papers, a review paper and a commentary and perspectives paper.

The review paper, Zhou (2022), is the second paper in this issue. The research team provides AAR readers with a literature review of archival research papers on climate-related information and other sustainability information. It is helpful for practitioners to have a summary of the research findings on these popular topics, to ingest now for more informed conversations, and to return to in the future as questions arise. It is helpful for academics to get a snapshot of the current literature, to inform teaching and future research.

The commentary and perspectives paper, Chua et al. (2022), is the final paper in this issue. Based on the inaugural Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) Dialogue in March 2022 (part of the AASB Dialogue Series), this commentary provides an overview of progress to date by the AASB on climate-related financial disclosures in Australia, and recounts the dialogue between expert researchers and practitioners on the implementation of the work of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The commentary finishes with many suggestions for future research on this topic, including fact-finding reports, forward-looking analyses and evaluations of stakeholder choices. We are sure that AAR readers will appreciate the three appendices provided by the AASB. They include the FRC/AASB/AUASB Position Statement on Extended External Reporting and Assurance, the AASB Position Statement on Extended External Reporting Framework from March 2022, and an AASB Project insights Report on Developing Sustainability-related Financial Reporting Standards in Australia.