ISO and climate change

Why are many of the familiar ISO management system standards

being amended, and what does this mean for standards users?

Whitepaper
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Contents
Introduction 03

ISO’s climate change commitment 04

Review of the standards portfolio 05

Standards affected by the amendments 06

Amendments not revisions 06

How the MSS core text is being amended 07

Timeline for issue of the amendments and their coming into force 08

How the amendments affect standards users 09

Action by individual technical committees 10

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Author

Martin Cottam
Chair of the ISO Technical Committee for Occupational Health & Safety Management

Martin Cottam is the Chair of ISO Technical Committee 283 for Occupational Health and Safety
Management, the committee that owns the ISO 45000 series of standards. Martin has chaired that
committee since its formation in 2018 and was recently appointed for a further term as chair.

Martin has been involved in the development of standards first at a national and then at an international
level for over 25 years. Martin worked for 31 years for Lloyd’s Register, of which LRQA was formerly part of
as the group technical assurance and quality director.

Introduction
In early 2024 many of ISO’s familiar management system standards,
including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 will be simultaneously
amended to incorporate additional text addressing climate change.
In this whitepaper, we explain the reasons behind this change,
describe the changes themselves, and address what this means
for standard users.

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ISO’s climate change commitment

In 2021, ISO signed into force its “London Declaration” on
climate change, in which ISO committed to work with its
members, the national standards bodies, and with other
stakeholders and partners, to ensure that international
standards and publications accelerate the achievement
of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals and the United Nations Call for
Action on Adaptation and Resilience. This amounted to
making action on climate change a strategic priority for
the whole ISO organisation.
The London Declaration included a specific commitment
to foster the active consideration of climate science and
associated transitions in the development of all new and
revised international standards and publications.
In making the London Declaration, ISO recognised the
important role that international standards need to play in
the world’s efforts to address the global climate emergency.
Such standards play a crucial role in underpinning the
global economy, creating trust in all aspects of international
trade, promoting good practices, and providing the basis for
assurance of processes and data.

For effective climate action to be taken across the globe, and for people
to be able to understand and trust what they’re being told about such
action, there is a need for common definitions and common metrics,
and a need to be able to verify processes and data, all of which are
facilitated by international standards. Otherwise, we are all simply in
a world of “smoke and mirrors”, vulnerable to being deceived by
“greenwashing”.

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Review of the Standards portfolio
ISO has a number of standards that specifically support the climate
agenda; they help us adapt to climate change, quantify greenhouse
gas emissions and promote the dissemination of good practices in
environmental management. However, ISO’s action arising from
the London Declaration extends beyond those standards which are
specifically “environmental”, as it has included a review across its
entire portfolio of over 24,000 standards.
This review has identified all the standards which potentially need to be
updated to address climate change and its effects, and has categorised
these by priority. The resulting review and updating of standards will
be undertaken by the individual technical committees that own the
relevant standards. Alongside this, individual technical committees
have been encouraged to consider the effects of climate change
concerning their areas of responsibility and to take action as necessary.
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In the case of the management system standards (MSS), a coordinated
approach has been adopted, as many of these standards are based
upon the “Harmonised Approach” set out in Annex SL of the ISO
Directives. This provides a common clause structure and common
high-level text which is used as the basis from which individual MSS are
developed. The coordination committee which owns the harmonised
approach, and which consists of members from all ISO committees
responsible for one or more MSS, proposed changes to the common
core text to address climate change, which would mean that identical
changes were made across all relevant MSS.
The proposed changes were approved by national standards bodies,
to be “fast-tracked” into force via the upcoming amendment of many
of the familiar MSS such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001.
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Standards affected by Amendments not revisions

the amendments The affected standards are being updated via the process of “amendment”, which differs from the process which follows when
a standard is “revised”. An amendment is a list of changes to a standard; in this case, a single-page document describing what
additional words have been added, and where they have been added.

The affected MSS are those which use the harmonised approach of Annex SL with its identical
core text. This core text contains requirements (or “shall” statements) and the standards which
use this text are the so-called “requirements specifications” or “Type A” MSS such as ISO 9001,
ISO 14001, and ISO 45001; in other words, the standards designed for conformity assessment
including certification.
Amending a standard leaves the existing version
of the standard in force but with these additions
Over 30 MSS are being amended as part and is quite different from a revision, where the
of this process. whole document is republished with changes
An exception is being made for any MSS that are very close to the publication of a full revision.
In such cases, the changes will simply be included as part of the revision. However, for this exception
incorporated into a new version that supersedes
to apply, a standard undergoing revision must be in the final stages prior to publication. This means
that ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001 will all be amended in early 2023, as work on the revision of
the previous version.
these standards is still in its early stages, with publication not expected until 2025 or beyond.

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How the MSS core text is being amended

Two changes are being introduced, both in Clause 4 of the standards (Context of the The first of these changes reads like a new Evidence suggests that not all organisations
organisation). The clause is shown below with the new text highlighted by requirement, but the existing requirement that
have been considering the impact of climate
precedes it (The organisation shall determine external
and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and change on all the areas covered by their
4.1 Understanding the organisation and its context that affect its ability to achieve the intended result(s) management systems. For example, it
of its XXX management system) should mean that any
The organisation shall determine external and internal issues that are relevant to its purpose and has been reported that many more
that affect its ability to achieve the intended result(s) of its XXX management system. organisation for which climate change is a relevant
issue has identified it as such. organisations are considering climate
The organisation shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue. change in the context of their quality
The new clause can be seen as simply reinforcing this management than in their management
message by specifically calling out climate change as
an issue to be considered as part of this.
of occupational health and safety and
4.2 Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties
so it would appear that these reminders
The organisation shall determine:
The second change appears as a note which are needed – both by organisations
• The interested parties that are relevant to the XXX management system; means it serves as guidance. Again, there is no new
requirement, only a new, explicit, reminder to include
themselves, and by certification bodies
• The relevant requirements of these interested parties;
• Which of these requirements will be addressed through the XXX management system. climate change when identifying the needs and and accreditors – to help ensure that all
expectations of interested parties. organisations recognise that these
NOTE: Relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change. standards require them to be fully alert
One might wonder why these changes are being made
if they are serving only to introduce reminders to do to, and proactive in addressing, the risks
something that organisations should have been arising from climate change.
doing anyway.

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Timeline for issue of the

amendments and their
coming into force

Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

It is expected that ISO will simultaneously

release the amendments of all affected standards
during January or February 2024 and will take
immediate effect.
Unlike when standards are revised, there will be no transition period for organisations to adopt changes, as,
in the case of these amendments, the changes are small and do not introduce any new requirements.

It is likely, but not yet certain, that the amendments will be made available to standard users without charge.

The new text has already been included in one published standard - ISO 7101:2023 on management systems
for quality in healthcare organisations - as this standard was undergoing revision and close to publication
when the changes to the core text were agreed, and so the changes were incorporated before publication.

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How the amendments affect standards users
There has not yet been any official guidance issued to certifiers and
accreditors since ISO announced its intention to amend the standards.
However, through the amendments, ISO is signalling the importance of
organisations considering risks related to climate change within their
management systems, and this is likely to result in some additional focus
on this issue from certifiers.
It is expected that the amendments will encourage certifiers to use their routine
surveillance activities to check whether climate change has indeed been
considered as part of the context of the organisation. Identified weaknesses are
likely to be addressed through the usual findings process, allowing time for the
organisation to strengthen the coverage of climate change where necessary.
Where a new assessment of a management system is taking place, it is expected
that the requirement to consider climate change will be an integral part of the
assessment of the organisation’s conformity with the Clause 4 requirements.
Many organisations will have already considered the effect of climate change
on their organisation generally and may have considered its effects relevant to
individual disciplines such as quality management, occupational health and safety
(OH&S), or asset management. But other organisations may have considered it for
some disciplines but not for others.
The amendments mean that organisations will now need to be able to
demonstrate that they have considered whether climate change is relevant to
each discipline, where the term “relevant” means capable of having an impact
on the organisation’s ability to meet its objectives relevant to that discipline, in
other words, its quality objectives, its OHS objectives, or its asset management
objectives, etc.
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This means considering risks related to climate change itself, together with risks
from actions related to climate adaptation and climate mitigation: For example:
• Risks related to climate change itself might include extreme weather events
disrupting supply chains or operations or causing injury to workers,
• Actions associated with climate adaptation might include increased
night-time working in sectors such as agriculture in response to excessive
day-time temperatures, with an associated increase in OH&S risks, and
• Actions associated with climate mitigation, such as the installation of
on-site renewable energy generation, may introduce new risks – e.g.
OH&S risks where maintenance of the equipment is required.
By identifying relevant aspects of climate change as part of its “context”,
the organisation should then take these aspects into account in its
management system, by assessing the relevant risks and taking
action to address them.
Because the amendments do not introduce any new requirements
it is unlikely that certification bodies will revise their certificates
to include mention of the amendment, as the requirements
against which certification takes place are all contained
within the un-amended version of the standard.
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Action by individual
technical committees
For MSS, the upcoming amendments are the first step in the implementation of ISO’s London Declaration.
But, as indicated earlier, individual technical committees are being encouraged to consider what else may
be needed for their areas of responsibility and to take action as necessary.

ISO/TC 283 for occupational health and safety management provides an example of a committee that has identified
the need for further action. In 2023, a new task group was created to focus on the OH&S impacts of climate change.
With support from members of TC 207 (environmental management), the group has developed proposals for a
guidance document - a publicly available specification (PAS) - addressing the OH&S impacts of climate change.
The full committee has recently approved the establishment of a new working group that will develop this
document, for publication as ISO PAS 45007 around the end of 2024, or early 2025.

Alongside this, the committee is exploring whether to develop an area on its website in which to provide examples
of the climate-related OH&S risks that organisations have identified and the actions taken to address them.

Beyond that, TC 283 has recently voted to begin a revision of ISO 45001; work on this revision will begin in 2024, with
the revised standard likely to be published in 2027. During this revision, the committee will consider whether to make
any references to climate change, in addition to those being introduced by the upcoming amendment of the standard.

The timelines for these committee-level actions are relatively long, especially when one considers that after
publication there will typically be a 3-year transition period for organisations to implement the changes to
ISO 45001 within their management system. This illustrates why ISO has taken the fast-track approach of
simultaneously amending all relevant MSS - to increase the focus on climate change now - rather than relying
on actions at individual committee level that will only take effect years in the future.

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