Rethinking Accounting in a Fractured World: ESG Assurance, Sustainability Reporting, and the Fight Against Greenwashing

Abstrak

This paper examines how accounting should be rethought in a fractured world marked by climate risk, regulatory fragmentation, declining trust, and contested corporate sustainability claims. The central argument is that sustainability, ESG, and greenwashing are not peripheral communication issues. They are core accounting issues because they concern measurement, evidence, assurance, materiality, and accountability. Using a structured conceptual review of sustainability reporting, ESG disclosure, assurance standards, and greenwashing literature, this paper develops an anti-greenwashing accounting framework. The framework links six elements: materiality clarity, metric discipline, evidence trail, independent assurance, governance accountability, and stakeholder contestability. The discussion shows that greenwashing grows when firms use symbolic disclosure without verifiable performance data, when ESG metrics are not comparable, and when sustainability claims are weakly connected to financial risk and operational evidence. Recent global developments, including IFRS S1, IFRS S2, ISSA 5000, the European anti-greenwashing agenda, and Indonesia’s sustainable finance regulation, indicate a shift from voluntary narrative reporting toward disciplined, auditable, and decision-useful sustainability disclosure. The paper contributes to accounting debate by positioning accountants as guardians of ESG credibility, not only preparers of financial statements. It concludes that the future of accounting depends on its capacity to verify sustainability claims and reduce the gap between corporate promises and actual performance.

Kata Kunci