To the Board of Directors of Clariant Ltd, Muttenz

We have been engaged to perform assurance procedures to provide limited assurance on the sustainability reporting of Clariant Ltd and its consolidated subsidiaries (“Clariant”) for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Scope and subject matter

Our limited assurance engagement focused on the 2020 sustainability indicators as published on Clariant’s website¹ http://reports.clariant.com/2020/gri 

1. The selected quantitative 2020 sustainability indicators as summarized in the GRI content index section and disclosed in the respective text boxes and marked with “  PwC CH” and
2. The management and reporting processes to collect and aggregate the data as well as the control environment in relation to the data aggregation of these data.

Criteria

The reporting criteria used by Clariant are described in the internal reporting guidelines and define those procedures, by which the sustainability indicators are internally gathered, collated and aggregated. The internal guidelines are based on the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards) published by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

Inherent limitations

The accuracy and completeness of sustainability indicators are subject to inherent limitations given their nature and methods for determining, calculating and estimating such data. Our assurance report should therefore be read in connection with Clariant’s internal guidelines, definitions and procedures on sustainability reporting. Further, the greenhouse gas quantification is subject to inherent uncertainty because of incomplete scientific knowledge used to determine emissions factors and the values needed to combine emissions of different gases.

Clariant responsibility

The Board of Directors of Clariant Ltd is responsible for both the subject matter and the criteria as well as for selection, preparation and presentation of the information in accordance with the criteria. This responsibility includes the design, implementation and maintenance of related internal control relevant to this reporting process that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

Our responsibility

Our responsibility is to express a limited assurance conclusion on the sustainability indicators as published on Clariant’s website¹ http://reports.clariant.com/2020/gri and marked with “  PwC CH” based on the procedures we have performed and the evidence we have obtained. We conducted our limited assurance engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (revised), “Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information”, and, in respect of greenhouse gas emissions, with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3410, “Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements”, issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. These standards require that we plan and perform this engagement to obtain limited assurance about whether the sustainability indicators are free from material misstatement.

A limited assurance engagement undertaken in accordance with ISAE 3000 (revised) and ISAE 3410 involves assessing the suitability in the circumstances of Clariant’s use of applicable criteria as the basis for the preparation of the sustainability indicators, assessing the risks of material misstatement of the sustainability indicators whether due to fraud or error, responding to the assessed risks as necessary in the circumstances, and evaluating the overall presentation of the sustainability indicators. A limited assurance engagement is substantially less in scope than a reasonable assurance engagement in relation to both the risk assessment procedures, including an understanding of internal control, and the procedures performed in response to the assessed risks. The procedures selected depend on the assurance practitioner’s judgement.

Our independence and quality controls

We are independent of Clariant in accordance with the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including International Independence Standards) issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA Code) that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements and other assurance engagements in Switzerland. We have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with the IESBA Code.

Our firm applies International Standard on Quality Control 1 and accordingly maintains a comprehensive system of quality control including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Summary of the work performed

Our limited assurance procedures included, but were not limited to the following work:

• Reviewing the application of Clariant’s internal guidelines
• Interviewing Clariant representatives at Group level responsible for the data collection and reporting
• Interviewing Clariant representatives in Germany, Japan and Brazil responsible for the data collection and reporting
• Performing tests on a sample basis of evidence supporting the sustainability indicators as outlined in the scope and subject matter section concerning completeness, accuracy, adequacy and consistency
• Inspecting the relevant documentation on a sample basis
• Reviewing and assessing the management reporting processes for sustainability reporting and consolidation and their related controls

We have not carried out any work on data other than outlined in the scope and subject matter section as defined above. We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our assurance conclusions.

Limited assurance conclusion

Based on the procedures we performed, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that

1. The 2020 sustainability indicators of Clariant as described in the scope and subject matter section and published on the website¹ http://reports.clariant.com/2020/gri and marked with “  PwC CH” are not prepared and disclosed in all material respects in accordance with Clariant’s internal guidelines and procedures; and
2. The management and reporting processes to collect and aggregate the data as well as the control environment in relation to the data aggregation are not functioning as designed.

PricewaterhouseCoopers AG

12 March 2021

¹ The maintenance and integrity of Clariant’s website is the responsibility of the Board of Directors; the work carried out by us does not involve consideration of these matters and, accordingly, we accept no responsibility for any changes that may have occurred to the key figures or reporting criteria when presented on Clariant’s website.