On the procurement of physical risk assessments for climate‐related disclosures: guidance from a climate science perspective

Following legislation introduced in 2021, many listed companies in New Zealand (Climate Reporting Entities, hereafter CREs) are required to produce annual climate-related disclosures as part of their financial risk reporting. Within these disclosures sits an expectation that 'climate-related risks and opportunities', including both existing and future physical climate risks to their portfolios, can be quantified in some way. However, because many CREs lack the requisite scientific expertise within their own organisations to produce such assessments, these exercises are often outsourced to third-party providers of climate risk information (hereafter, TPPCRIs). Here, we propose eight questions that CREs could ask these TPPCRIs, so to ensure the end-product is not just consistent with the expectations of the New Zealand Climate Standards but also with our best-available understanding of the science of climate change.