Carry out the climate double materiality assessment – ESRS E1

The double materiality assessment (DMA) for the topic of climate change determines which ESRS E1 subtopics you have to report on. This article takes you through the “Climate DMA” page once from end to end – from the reporting boundary to approval. It is the lead article for all detailed DMA steps.

Prerequisites

• A reporting period has been created for your team and marked as active.
• A CSRD Reporting Boundary has been created for this reporting period and locked. Only then can the Climate DMA assessment be opened.
• To record and edit content you need the role Administrator, Manager or Editor. Viewer, Auditor and Approver may only read; the Administrator role is required to approve and to reset an assessment.

Step by step

1. In the left menu under “Climate”, open “Climate DMA”. The breadcrumb path reads “Climate > Climate DMA”. The assessment for the current reporting period is created automatically the first time the page opens successfully – exactly one DMA exists per reporting period and reporting boundary.
2. In the “Assessment status” section, check the lifecycle status (Draft, In Review, Approved) and the metrics, in particular “Covered Subtopic Areas” and “Not yet scored”.
3. Record the impact side in the “Climate Impacts” section via “+ Add Impacts” – choose “Add Manually”, “Add from Checklist” or, if an AI integration is configured, “Discover with AI”.
4. Record the financial side in the “Risks and Opportunities” section via “+ Add Risk or Opportunity” – “Add Manually”, “AI-Powered Physical Risk Screening” or “AI Transition Risk Screening”.
5. In the “Stakeholder Engagement” section, use “+ Add Engagement” to document the stakeholder contributions underlying your materiality determination.
6. In the “Subtopic Area Materiality” section, open the three rows Climate Change Mitigation, Climate Change Adaptation and Energy one after another. If you keep an area as Not material in the “Determination” column, enter the documented justification in the “Subtopic Area Justification” dialog.
7. Review the distribution in the “Double Materiality Matrix” section and download the diagram if needed via “Export PNG”.
8. In status Draft, start the DMA completeness check via “Actions → Validate Completeness” and submit the assessment for review.
9. In status In Review, select “Approve” under “Actions” and confirm the “Approve Climate DMA” dialog. The assessment then becomes read-only; changes are possible again only after “Return to Draft”.

Telling impact and financial materiality apart

The ESRS require both perspectives for E1. In the matrix, the vertical axis represents impact materiality and the horizontal axis financial materiality.

• Impact materiality – actual and potential positive and negative impacts of your company on the climate. You maintain these in the “Climate Impacts” section.
• Financial materiality – climate-related risks and opportunities that affect your financial performance. You maintain these in the “Risks and Opportunities” section.
• Both sides are consolidated per subtopic area; subtopics determined to be material then require quantitative disclosures, targets and transition plans.

Practical tips

• Lock the CSRD Reporting Boundary for the correct reporting period first. If it is missing, the application replaces all content blocks with the notice “Please complete and lock your CSRD Reporting Boundary for this period before accessing Climate DMA.”
• The exported PNG file carries no version stamp – export it only once the assessment is complete and approved.
• Climate targets and transition plans can be created only for subtopics classified as Material here.