What the 2024 climate change amendment changed in ISO 45001

ISO 45001:2018/Amd 1:2024, "Climate action changes", was published in February 2024. Its text runs to one page and makes two additions, both in the context clauses. No other clause of ISO 45001 changed.

The two additions

Clause 4.1 gains a sentence at the end: the organization shall determine whether climate change is a relevant issue.

Clause 4.2 gains a note at the end: relevant interested parties can have requirements related to climate change.

The first is a requirement. The second is a note. ISO 9001 received the same wording in its own 2024 amendment.

Reading clause 4.1 in ISO 45001

Clause 4.1 asks for the external and internal issues relevant to the organization's purpose that affect its ability to achieve the intended outcome(s) of its OH&S management system. Note 1 to entry of definition 3.11 states those outcomes: preventing injury and ill health to workers, and providing safe and healthy workplaces.

The added sentence asks whether climate change is one of those issues. The requirement is the determination. "Yes" and "no" can both conform, if the question was asked and the answer has reasoning behind it. Never having asked does not conform.

Clause 4.1 calls for no documented information, before or after the amendment.

Reading the note in clause 4.2

In ISO 45001, clause 4.2 covers workers as well as other interested parties. It asks for their relevant needs and expectations and, in item c), which of these are, or could become, legal requirements and other requirements. The note names climate change as a subject such requirements can concern. Where one is a legal requirement or other requirement, clause 6.1.3 applies to it as to any other.

The amendment changed no other clause, but existing clauses carry the answer forward:

• Clause 4.3 a) and b): the scope considers the issues in 4.1 and takes into account the requirements in 4.2.
• Clause 6.1.1: planning considers the same issues and requirements when determining risks and opportunities.
• Clause 9.3 b): management review considers changes in external and internal issues.

Amendment, not revision

An amendment takes effect on publication. There was no transition period and no new certificate: ISO 45001:2018 certificates still reference ISO 45001:2018. A revision of ISO 45001 is a separate matter, with its own route to new certificates.

What an auditor looks for

Whether the determination was made, by people in a position to make it. Whether the reasoning is plausible for the organization's situation. And, if the answer was yes, whether the risks and opportunities determined under clause 6.1 reflect it.

This is generic information about the requirement, not advice on any particular management system.

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