Аннотация
The article considers environmental audit as an accounting and analytical tool for ensuring sustainable development in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The relevance of the study is due to increasing environmental challenges, increasing requirements for the reliability of environmental reporting, the need to increase transparency of environmental costs and the formation of an effective environmental risk management system. The purpose of the article is to reveal the role of environmental audit in assessing environmental performance, environmental costs, environmental obligations and the quality of reporting information of enterprises. The methodological basis of the study was based on systematic, comparative, dynamic, structural, accounting, analytical and risk-oriented approaches. The empirical basis was the official statistical data of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2020-2025, materials from the Bureau of National Statistics, the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, RSE Kazhydromet, as well as the provisions of environmental legislation. The results of the study showed that in 2020-2023, there was a decrease in pollutant emissions from stationary sources in Kazakhstan, but in 2024, their growth was recorded. At the same time, the dynamics of environmental costs was characterized by instability: after an increase in 2020-2023, they decreased in 2024. Data for 2025 on municipal waste management, water supply and sanitation confirmed the need to expand environmental audit facilities. It is proved that an environmental audit should cover not only the verification of regulatory compliance, but also the analysis of environmental accounting, reporting, costs, obligations, waste, water use, wastewater and environmental risks. An accounting and analytical approach based on the interrelation of environmental, financial and management indicators is proposed. It is concluded that environmental audit can become an important mechanism for increasing transparency, environmental responsibility and sustainability of enterprises in Kazakhstan.