Climate Resilience
Climate Resilience
Climate change poses a risk for the health of the global population, businesses, communities and the economy. A warming planet increases the risk of wildfires, rising sea levels, extreme heat, severe weather and droughts. These hazards can have a direct effect on population health and further stress health care infrastructure, including the network of global manufacturing facilities and warehouses utilised by CSL in the production of life-saving medicines and therapies. We recognise the need to limit global warming to 1.5ºC in line with the Paris Agreement to avoid the worst impacts of climate change as identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
CSL is a science-led organisation which recognises that climate change affects all aspects of businesses and communities, both directly and indirectly, with the severity varying significantly by region. We have identified multiple opportunities to quantify and lower our greenhouse gas emissions, and expand knowledge-sharing opportunities between different functions and geographies to develop multi-purpose adaptation and mitigation solutions.
Given the evolving sustainability and climate-related standards, including the introduction of the mandatory Australian Sustainability Reporting Standard (ASRS), CSL has been working on updating the Company’s enterprise-wide climate-related risks and opportunities assessment and will share its results, as part of the FY2026 reporting period.
CSL’s last enterprise-wise climate risk and opportunities assessment was completed in 2022, using the latest IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC AR6) across CSL’s most critical infrastructure: manufacturing facilities and warehouses. With involvement from CSL staff across the Company’s key geographies, CSL identified and prioritised physical and transition climate risks and opportunities referencing CSL’s Enterprise Risk Management Framework to 2030, with climate scenario analysis informing long-term changes and potential impacts in climate policy and climate hazards relevant to our operations.
Primarily focusing on a 2030 timeframe, in line with our strategy, the materiality of these risks as is predicted today is currently of low to moderate impact, and we will continue to regularly monitor and reassess these risks as the effects of climate change further unfold, with our approach to management of these risks now embedded in our Enterprise Risk Management Framework.
Any identified moderate or significant site-based physical risks are integrated into existing operational risk management practices in accordance with the Enterprise Risk Management Framework, so facilities can monitor and manage risks as applicable to their location and operations. Transitional risks are managed by CSL at an enterprise level, as these risks generally span the network of facilities directly owned by CSL.
In 2024, CSL’s climate risk and opportunities assessment was extended to include CSL Vifor’s St Gallen site in Switzerland, as our earlier assessment in 2022 was undertaken prior to CSL’s acquisition of Vifor. CSL assessed the physical climate-related risks of the CSL Vifor manufacturing facility at St Gallen using the worst-case climate change scenario to 2030 across three climate change hazards of chronic and extreme heat, flood associated with extreme rain and water scarcity. Utilising CSL’s Enterprise Risk Management Framework, the results of the assessment indicated that all risks identified had a low to moderate impact on operations.
The resiliency of our operations is aided by:
- having a geographically diverse but integrated network of manufacturing facilities;
- a network of more than 300 plasma collection centres spread across the U.S., Germany and Hungary;
- a supply chain that is actively monitored and risk-managed, particularly for critical and sole source suppliers involved in the manufacture of our products;
- a roadmap for reducing emissions by FY2030; and
- an emerging need to investigate how climate change affects supply chain routes that are dependent on cold-chain transportation.
On an annual basis CSL assesses the impact of climate risk on its financial reporting. The impact assessment principally focuses on key judgement areas, being the valuation and useful lives of intangible and tangible assets and the identification and valuation of provisions and contingent liabilities. You can find more information about this assessment in our Annual Report.
These efforts ensure we can contribute to limiting global warming, while continuing to improve the lives of our patients and protect public health. You can find more information on CSL’s enterprise-wide climate change risk assessment, undertaken in 2022, in CSL’s 2021/22 Annual Report.
