Course Introduction
Climate-related financial risks are increasingly affecting organizational strategy, financial performance, asset values, liabilities, capital allocation, insurance costs, supply chains, financing arrangements, and long-term business viability. This course provides a comprehensive framework for auditing and assuring climate-related financial risks, connecting climate information with financial reporting, risk management, internal controls, governance, and assurance activities.
The course examines both physical and transition risks and their potential financial consequences. Participants will assess risks arising from extreme weather, water stress, changing temperatures, natural hazards, regulatory developments, carbon pricing, technological transitions, market changes, customer preferences, and evolving stakeholder expectations. Emphasis is placed on translating climate exposures into financially relevant risks that can be evaluated through audit and assurance procedures.
Participants will explore the relationship between climate-related information and financial statement areas including property, plant and equipment, impairment, provisions, inventories, investments, financing, revenue assumptions, insurance, supply-chain exposures, and going-concern assessments. The course addresses how climate assumptions can influence management estimates, forecasts, valuations, scenario analysis, and disclosures, while highlighting the importance of consistency between narrative climate information and underlying financial records.
Strong attention is given to climate governance and internal control frameworks. Participants will evaluate board oversight, management accountability, risk appetite, climate strategies, policies, controls, data ownership, reporting processes, scenario analysis, and internal audit coverage. They will learn how to assess whether climate-related financial risks are appropriately identified, measured, monitored, controlled, reported, and integrated into enterprise risk management.
The course also addresses climate data and assurance challenges, including emissions information, climate metrics, scenario assumptions, physical risk data, transition indicators, financed emissions, supply-chain information, and third-party datasets. Participants will examine data quality, completeness, accuracy, consistency, estimation uncertainty, model risk, documentation, controls, and the relationship between non-financial climate data and financial information.
Through practical exercises and an integrated case study, participants will perform climate risk assessments, evaluate financial statement impacts, test climate-related controls, assess scenario analysis, analyze climate-sensitive estimates, and develop assurance findings. The course equips internal auditors, external auditors, finance professionals, risk managers, and assurance specialists to provide credible, evidence-based assurance over climate-related financial risks.
Duration
10 days
Who Should Attend
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Internal auditors responsible for climate, sustainability, financial, or enterprise risk assurance.
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External auditors assessing climate-related financial reporting risks and disclosures.
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Finance directors and financial controllers responsible for climate-sensitive financial reporting.
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Risk managers integrating climate risks into enterprise risk management frameworks.
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Sustainability and ESG professionals working with financial risk and assurance teams.
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Audit managers designing climate-related audit procedures and assurance engagements.
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Compliance professionals monitoring climate-related regulatory and reporting requirements.
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Treasury professionals assessing climate impacts on liquidity, funding, investments, and financing.
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Investment and portfolio risk professionals evaluating climate-related financial exposures.
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Corporate governance professionals supporting board oversight of climate-related risks.
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Data and analytics professionals managing climate and financial risk information.
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Internal control specialists evaluating climate-related governance and reporting controls.
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Forensic and assurance professionals investigating climate-related financial information and claims.
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Accounting professionals addressing climate-sensitive estimates, provisions, valuations, and disclosures.
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Professionals seeking advanced practical expertise in climate-related financial risk audit and assurance.
Course Objectives
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Develop a comprehensive understanding of climate-related financial risks and their implications for financial auditing, assurance, governance, and reporting.
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Distinguish physical risks, transition risks, liability risks, and broader climate-related financial exposures affecting organizational performance and resilience.
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Assess how climate-related risks can affect financial statement assertions, accounting estimates, valuations, impairment, provisions, assets, liabilities, and going-concern assessments.
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Evaluate governance structures, board oversight, management responsibilities, risk appetite, policies, and internal controls addressing climate-related financial risks.
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Develop risk-based audit procedures for identifying, assessing, testing, monitoring, and reporting climate-related financial exposures.
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Evaluate climate-related assumptions, scenarios, forecasts, models, and estimates used by management in financial planning and reporting.
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Assess the quality, completeness, accuracy, consistency, and reliability of climate-related data used in financial risk management and assurance.
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Examine the relationship between climate disclosures, sustainability information, financial statements, strategic plans, budgets, and underlying operational data.
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Apply audit analytics and scenario analysis to identify climate-sensitive assets, transactions, portfolios, locations, suppliers, and financial exposures.
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Evaluate climate-related risks affecting credit, investments, treasury, insurance, supply chains, capital expenditure, asset values, and financing arrangements.
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Develop evidence-based assurance findings addressing control deficiencies, data limitations, model uncertainty, reporting inconsistencies, and financial risk implications.
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Design an integrated climate financial risk assurance framework supporting continuous monitoring, transparent reporting, effective governance, and informed management action.
Comprehensive Course Outline
Module 1: Foundations of Climate-Related Financial Risk Audit and Assurance
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Examine climate-related financial risks and their relevance to financial reporting, internal audit, enterprise risk management, and assurance.
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Distinguish physical, transition, liability, market, credit, operational, strategic, and reputational pathways through which climate risks can affect finances.
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Identify climate-sensitive financial statement areas, business processes, assets, liabilities, investments, and operational exposures.
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Establish a risk-based climate assurance framework connecting climate drivers, financial impacts, controls, evidence, and audit conclusions.
Module 2: Climate Governance, Strategy and Financial Risk Oversight
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Evaluate board and management responsibilities for identifying, managing, monitoring, and reporting climate-related financial risks.
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Assess climate strategies, policies, risk appetite, governance structures, accountability, escalation mechanisms, and management reporting.
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Examine integration between climate strategy, enterprise risk management, financial planning, capital allocation, and business continuity.
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Identify governance weaknesses involving unclear responsibilities, insufficient oversight, inconsistent assumptions, or inadequate climate risk escalation.
Module 3: Physical Climate Risk and Financial Exposure Assessment
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Assess financial impacts arising from floods, droughts, storms, wildfires, heat stress, water scarcity, sea-level changes, and other physical hazards.
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Identify assets, facilities, operations, suppliers, customers, and investments exposed to physical climate risks across relevant locations.
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Evaluate potential effects on asset values, production capacity, insurance, operating costs, supply chains, revenues, and capital expenditure.
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Develop audit procedures for validating physical risk assessments, geographic data, exposure assumptions, scenario inputs, and financial impact estimates.
Module 4: Transition Risk and Financial Reporting Implications
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Examine financial risks arising from changes in regulation, carbon pricing, technology, energy systems, markets, customer preferences, and business models.
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Assess how transition assumptions may affect asset useful lives, impairment, capital expenditure, revenue forecasts, operating costs, and investment decisions.
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Evaluate organizational transition plans and their consistency with budgets, forecasts, financing arrangements, and financial reporting assumptions.
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Identify audit risks arising from inconsistent transition assumptions, unsupported projections, stranded assets, or delayed recognition of financial impacts.
Module 5: Climate Risk and Financial Statement Estimates
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Evaluate climate-related assumptions incorporated into impairment testing, provisions, fair values, depreciation, useful lives, and other management estimates.
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Assess whether climate risks have been appropriately considered in cash flow forecasts, discount rates, growth assumptions, and asset recoverability analyses.
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Examine estimation uncertainty, sensitivity analysis, scenario assumptions, and management judgment affecting climate-sensitive financial statement balances.
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Develop audit procedures for challenging assumptions, corroborating evidence, evaluating consistency, and documenting conclusions over climate-sensitive estimates.
Module 6: Climate Risk, Credit, Investments and Treasury
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Assess climate-related credit risks affecting borrowers, counterparties, customers, loan portfolios, and financing arrangements.
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Evaluate climate exposures within investment portfolios, securities, infrastructure assets, real estate, commodities, and other financial instruments.
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Examine climate impacts on liquidity, funding costs, collateral values, insurance, interest rates, and treasury risk management.
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Develop audit analytics for identifying concentrated climate exposures, vulnerable counterparties, geographic concentrations, and financially significant transition risks.
Module 7: Climate Risk, Assets, Operations and Supply Chains
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Identify climate-sensitive property, equipment, infrastructure, inventories, production facilities, and operational assets requiring enhanced financial risk assessment.
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Evaluate climate-related supply-chain disruptions, supplier concentration, input costs, transportation risks, and business continuity implications.
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Assess capital expenditure plans and determine whether climate resilience, transition requirements, or changing operating assumptions affect financial decisions.
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Test controls over asset registers, operational risk information, supplier data, insurance information, and financial impact assessments.
Module 8: Climate Data, Metrics and Financial Assurance
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Examine climate-related data sources including emissions metrics, energy consumption, geographic information, physical risk indicators, and operational datasets.
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Assess data completeness, accuracy, consistency, ownership, lineage, estimation methods, and controls supporting climate-related financial analysis.
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Evaluate the integration of climate data with accounting systems, risk platforms, financial models, management reporting, and external disclosures.
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Identify risks arising from unreliable data, inconsistent methodologies, unsupported estimates, manual adjustments, and weak data governance.
Module 9: Climate Scenario Analysis and Stress Testing
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Examine scenario analysis methodologies used to evaluate potential financial outcomes under different climate pathways and assumptions.
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Assess scenario design, time horizons, variables, sensitivity analysis, model assumptions, data sources, and management interpretation.
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Evaluate whether scenario results are appropriately incorporated into risk assessments, financial planning, capital decisions, and assurance procedures.
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Develop audit procedures for validating scenario models, inputs, outputs, limitations, governance, and consistency with other organizational forecasts.
Module 10: Climate Risk Internal Controls and Continuous Monitoring
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Evaluate controls over climate risk identification, data collection, financial assessment, reporting, governance, and management decision-making.
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Assess automated and manual controls supporting climate metrics, financial models, risk dashboards, reporting processes, and disclosure preparation.
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Design continuous monitoring indicators for climate-sensitive assets, financial exposures, risk thresholds, scenario changes, and control exceptions.
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Integrate climate risk monitoring into internal audit plans, enterprise risk management, financial control frameworks, and management escalation processes.
Module 11: Climate-Related Financial Disclosures and Audit Procedures
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Examine the relationship between climate-related disclosures, financial statements, risk reports, strategic plans, and supporting management information.
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Assess consistency between qualitative climate statements and quantitative financial assumptions, forecasts, exposures, and accounting estimates.
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Evaluate disclosure controls covering data collection, review, approval, evidence retention, reporting boundaries, and management sign-off.
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Develop audit procedures for identifying omissions, inconsistencies, unsupported claims, material information gaps, and conflicting financial assumptions.
Module 12: Climate Risk, Tax, Insurance and Legal Financial Exposures
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Assess financial implications of climate-related taxes, carbon pricing, environmental obligations, incentives, and regulatory requirements.
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Evaluate insurance coverage, premiums, exclusions, claims exposure, asset protection, and climate-sensitive financial assumptions.
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Examine potential legal and contractual exposures arising from environmental obligations, climate-related commitments, supplier arrangements, and stakeholder claims.
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Develop assurance procedures connecting climate-related obligations with provisions, contingencies, contracts, risk disclosures, and financial reporting.
Module 13: Climate Data Analytics and Technology-Enabled Assurance
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Apply data analytics to identify climate-sensitive assets, transactions, locations, counterparties, suppliers, and financial exposures across large populations.
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Integrate financial, operational, geographic, emissions, risk, and scenario data to identify relationships and emerging climate-related financial risks.
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Evaluate technology controls supporting climate data platforms, risk models, reporting systems, interfaces, dashboards, and automated calculations.
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Develop analytical procedures for detecting unusual trends, inconsistent assumptions, data gaps, concentration risks, and changes in climate-related exposures.
Module 14: Climate Risk Audit Evidence, Documentation and Reporting
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Determine what constitutes sufficient and appropriate audit evidence when climate assessments involve forecasts, models, estimates, external datasets, and uncertain outcomes.
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Evaluate management assumptions, third-party information, scenario outputs, specialist reports, financial models, and supporting operational evidence.
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Develop clear audit findings describing climate-related conditions, financial implications, control deficiencies, root causes, uncertainty, and recommended actions.
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Communicate climate assurance conclusions effectively to audit committees, boards, executives, finance teams, risk functions, and other stakeholders.
Module 15: Emerging Climate Financial Risks and Advanced Assurance
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Examine emerging financial risks involving climate technology, carbon markets, nature-related dependencies, energy transition, supply-chain restructuring, and evolving regulation.
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Evaluate interactions between climate risks and biodiversity, water stress, geopolitical developments, technology change, inflation, and financial market volatility.
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Assess emerging assurance challenges involving forward-looking information, climate commitments, transition plans, financed emissions, and complex scenario models.
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Develop advanced assurance strategies combining financial auditing, climate analytics, continuous monitoring, scenario analysis, technology controls, and professional judgment.
Module 16: Integrated Climate-Related Financial Risk Audit Case Study
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Conduct an end-to-end climate financial risk audit covering governance, physical risks, transition risks, financial statements, data, controls, and disclosures.
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Analyze climate-sensitive assets, financial models, investment exposures, supply-chain information, scenarios, estimates, and management assumptions.
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Evaluate audit evidence, identify material climate-related financial risks, test relevant controls, and develop evidence-based findings and recommendations.
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Prepare an integrated climate financial risk assurance report and management presentation covering financial implications, uncertainties, controls, and continuous monitoring.
Training Approach
This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.
Tailor-Made Course
This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808
Training Venue
The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.
Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant
Certification
Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.
Airport Pickup and Accommodation
Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808
Terms of Payment:
Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.
