CSRD下におけるサステナビリティ保証の境界の伝達：欧州電力事業者の独立監査報告書からの証拠

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:保証報告書の伝達実態をSEGAP枠組みで分析した、保証研究・開示インフラ研究への実証的貢献。

🏢実務担当者:CSRD対応の保証範囲・限界の伝え方を理解し、自社の保証水準設計や投資家説明に活用できる。

🏛政策担当者:限定的保証の標準化が実質的説明責任に直結しない点を踏まえ、保証制度設計の検討材料となる。

This study examines how independent auditors' reports communicate the scope, uncertainty, liability, double materiality, and limitations of sustainability assurance during the early implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). The study applies qualitative content analysis to 74 independent auditors' reports issued for 32 purposively selected European electricity producers between 2023 and 2025. The reports are independently double-coded using a structured deductive–inductive framework, and the resulting communication patterns are interpreted through the Sustainability Expectation Gap (SEGAP). Within the analysed corpus, the reports point to a structural tension between increasing procedural standardisation and substantive accountability. Report structures and terminology become more consistent, and limited assurance predominates, yet the communication of double materiality, methodological uncertainty, liability boundaries, and assurance depth remains uneven. Double materiality becomes increasingly visible as a reporting criterion, but the reports offer limited insight into how auditors evaluate management's assessment and its underlying data. Interpreted through the SEGAP, these patterns are consistent with an increasing risk-communication function alongside assurance's traditional risk-reduction function, helping to explain how procedural standardisation can coexist with limited substantive accountability. The analysis is confined to observable report content and does not infer underlying assurance quality, auditors' intentions, or users' interpretations. On this basis, the reports are interpreted as communicative boundary objects. The findings suggest that sustainability assurance contributes primarily to SDG 16 by strengthening transparency and accountability, while its contribution to broader objectives such as SDG 7, SDG 12, and SDG 13 depends on the reliability and decision-usefulness of the underlying sustainability data. Clearer communication of assurance boundaries would help users calibrate what they can reasonably infer from assured sustainability information.

• openalex https://doi.org/10.55845/5tt03b64first seen 2026-10-07 05:06:29
• semanticscholar https://journalofsustainability.net/ojs/JoS/article/download/256/128first seen 2026-10-08 05:44:15 · last seen 2026-10-11 05:26:46