OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES TO THE STANDARDIZATION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT REPORTING

Introduction. The article is devoted to studying the international experience of standardization of reporting on sustainable development (non-financial reporting) and the implementation of the European Union's Directives, Regulations, and standards in the reporting of sustainable development. The European legislation in the field of auditing, accounting, sustainable development and disclosure of information in sustainable development reports is analyzed, and its application is outlined based on benchmarking to adapt the process of integrated reports based on ESG principles to the European system. The primary sustainability reporting standards were monitored, and the critical features of some leading sustainability reporting systems were considered. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to assess the institutional support for reporting of enterprises on sustainable development through the study of international approaches to the standardization of such reporting. Materials and methods. The research materials are: 1) regulatory and legal support for reporting on sustainable development; 2) the works of domestic and foreign scientists, regarding issues of reporting by enterprises according to the standards of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG). In the process of carrying out the research, the following scientific methods were used: analysis; synthesis and generalization of the obtained data; tabular and graphic methods (to ensure clarity of presentation of the obtained data), comparative analysis. Results. The analysis of international approaches to the standardization of sustainability reporting carried out in the study showed that recently, the number of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) regulations and standards around the world has been growing rapidly, which is accompanied by the use of different approaches to the preparation of this reporting. As a result, there are significant variations (discrepancies) in the disclosure of the content of information regarding sustainability reporting and ESG performance of the company, which complicates the audit procedure of this area, which is aimed at checking the compliance of the business entity with the selected sustainable development goals. Standardization of approaches to reporting on sustainable development will affect the measurement of risks related to ESG and the auditor's analysis of the documentation and processes of the business entity to confirm the achievement of the goal and effectiveness of the company's sustainable development strategy by evaluating the disclosure of information about the management of environmental and social impacts. Discussion. The following steps in standardizing approaches to sustainable development reporting in Ukraine are harmonising the domestic legal framework with EU directive requirements and ESRS standards.