In February 2024, ISO and the IAF published a joint communiqué confirming amendments to a large group of management system standards, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001 and ISO/IEC 27001 among them. The amendments were effective immediately, with no transition period.
The change is small in wording and easy to underestimate. Clause 4.1 now requires the organization to determine whether climate change is a relevant issue among the external issues it considers. Clause 4.2 adds that relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.
There is no requirement to reduce emissions, to set a climate target, or to produce a climate report. The requirement is to have considered whether climate change is relevant to your context, and to be able to show that consideration. For an air-conditioned warehouse in the UAE, ambient temperature trends affecting equipment and worker heat stress are the obvious relevance.
Because the amendments took effect without a transition period, auditors have been looking for this since 2024. Where an organization has not addressed it at all, it is raised as a nonconformity against clause 4.1 rather than as an observation.