AASB S2 organises everything it asks for under four pillars, the same architecture as TCFD and IFRS S2. Read as a standard it is dense; read as a checklist it is manageable. We break it into 33 discrete controls, individually scoreable statements like "the board's oversight of climate-related risks is described" because that is the level at which gaps get owned and closed.
How the board and management oversee climate-related risks and opportunities: charters, skills, reporting lines, how climate factors into strategy and remuneration decisions.
The material physical and transition risks and opportunities, their effects on the business model and financial position over short, medium and long horizons, transition plans, and resilience under scenario analysis.
The processes used to identify, assess, prioritise and monitor climate risks, and how they are integrated into the entity's overall risk management framework.
Scope 1, 2 and Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, industry-based metrics, internal carbon prices where used, and the climate targets set, with progress against them.
What makes the requirements demanding is not any single control but their evidentiary standard. Every disclosure needs to trace back to something real: a board charter, a risk register entry, a metered energy record, a supplier invoice. The sustainability report carries a directors' declaration and sits inside the annual report, so the numbers face the same scrutiny as the financial statements, and assurance obligations tighten each year.
The practical approach is to treat the 33 controls as a living scorecard rather than a drafting checklist: score each one against your current documents, keep the evidence linked, and re-score as things change. That is exactly what ComplianceAgent automates: a maintained evidence base scored against every control, with gaps assigned to owners. See how to run that process in the gap analysis guide.