This week: the gap between ESG disclosure and ESG verification, and why it matters for every portfolio that relies on the numbers. Here's the front page. Paid subscribers can download the full newspaper edition at the bottom of this post. The answer depends on who you count. Among the 1,400 largest listed companies in G20 markets, 75% had some sustainability data assured in 2024. But assuring a single metric counts. Across 56,565 reports from 14,512 companies, only 42.9% carried any assurance statement at all. And most of that is light. Of the reports where the level could be read, 88.6% got only limited assurance: the assurer says nothing came to its attention, after mostly asking questions. Just 8.7% got reasonable assurance, the standard we expect for financial statements. That is roughly 4% of the whole sample. Why does this matter so much for investors' Because audit is what turns a company's claim into something you can price. Financial statements earned that trust through...
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