Essential Guide to CSRD: Comprehensive insights on climate and biodiversity risk assessment

10 October 2024

Written by: Marie-Anne Vincent, , marieanne.vincent@axaclimate.com

climate and biodiversity risk assessment

Climate change is having a profound impact on both individuals and businesses. In 2022, natural disasters such as floods, wildfires, and heatwaves caused an estimated $275 billion in global economic losses. As a result, evaluating these financial risks has become a crucial strategic priority for businesses and investors. Gaining comprehensive insights into climate and biodiversity risk assessment is now essential for making informed decisions and ensuring long-term resilience.

Why do companies need reliable, clear and actionable data ?

– Better inform their investment decisions by taking into account climate and natural risks

– Be practical and pragmatic in their climate adaptation strategies

– Meet their reporting requirements, especially in the evolving context of the EU Green Deal

What is CSRD ?

As part of the EU Green Deal1, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is a landmark initiative by the European Union to improve and standardise corporate sustainability reporting across Member States. It builds on the existing Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) to improve the quality, consistency and comparability of sustainability information provided by companies. The Directive requires companies to disclose information on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts and performance, enabling stakeholders to better assess the sustainability and societal impacts of companies. It also highlights the importance of sustainability performance in corporate governance and decision-making.

What are the key objectives of CSRD ?

Beyond being a reporting obligation, the CSRD can be leveraged as a strategic management tool whose aim is to foster a better understanding of interactions between business models and sustainable development through five main objectives.

Enhanced Transparency: To ensure stakeholders, including investors, consumers, policymakers, and the public, can access reliable and comparable sustainability information

Integration of Sustainability into Business Strategy: To encourage companies to integrate sustainability considerations into their business models and strategies, fostering long-term, sustainable growth

Stakeholders’ engagement: Foster better dialogue, data management, and collaboration between departments, particularly risk, finance, and sustainability

Stronger Competitive Advantage: Stand out from the competition by demonstrating the company’s commitments in tangible terms

Alignment with Global Standards: To harmonise reporting requirements with international frameworks and standards, such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the ISSB standards

What can AXA Climate do for climate and biodiversity risk assessment ?

Altitude is a SaaS platform developed by AXA Climate, relying on its network of experts and partners. It enables companies to assess the physical climate and biodiversity risks to which their strategic assets are exposed. Altitude quantifies the potential impacts of the associated costs for their sites and suppliers and offers recommendations for effective adaptation measures. With Altitude, risk and ESG managers can independently conduct a fast, detailed, and reliable analysis of hundreds of sites. It represents the best way to bridge the gap and become CSRD-ready.

This whitepaper provides an overview of climate and biodiversity risk assessment with a particular focus on ESRS E1 (which addresses climate change, requiring companies to disclose information on emissions, transition plans, and climate-related risks) and ESRS E4 (which focuses on biodiversity and ecosystems, requiring organisations to report their impact or reliance on ecosystems and the strategies they have in place for biodiversity preservation). Our publication sheds light on CSRD, its objectives, and how it concretely changes companies. It also illustrates how companies use Altitude to report on CSRD and tackle climate change adaptation.

Download the full document

Download Form CSRD Altitude

For more information, contact Marie-Anne Vincent, , marieanne.vincent@axaclimate.com

View references
[1] Half of World’s GDP Moderately or Highly Dependent on Nature, Says New Report. (2020). World Economic Forum. Access link
[2] TNFD. (2022). Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. Access link

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