65 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024
Strategic report
Governance
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The implementation of the transition plan is also overseen by the ESGR. Accountable delivery functions report quarterly to the ESGR, including raising any risks to the delivery of the plan. As a cross- functional strategic programme, business functions accountable for the delivery of the transition plan include procurement, commercial, brand and marketing, networks and technology, enterprise, products and services, amongst others. The ESGR identifies any significant business decisions (for example, major transactions or changes to business strategy) that could impact Vodafone’s climate resilience or change the severity or likelihood of climate-related risks. Any risks or issues identified are evaluated by the risk and sustainable business teams, and if necessary escalated through the Protecting the Planet and Purpose governance structure to the ESGR. We have an internal global policy, owned by the Chief External and Corporate Affairs Officer, to establish the minimum requirements for environmental management. All Vodafone entities within the Group’s operational control (including within Vodacom) are required to adhere to this policy. The policy includes requirements to annually review climate-related risks and opportunities within the context of each market we operate in, and incorporate any significant findings into our overall Group-level climate-related risk assessment. The policy also includes requirements to implement the CTP, which assigns responsibility for taking climate action and building climate resilience, in line with our strategy, to management across our global business. Click to read more about our Climate Transition Plan: www.vodafone.com/ctp Strategy For FY24, our climate-related risk assessment builds upon our previous analyses, including our quantitative scenario analysis of physical climate risk in Europe and Vodacom’s assessment of climate-related risks in Africa. We also conducted a review of transition risks, which involved desk-based research, internal stakeholder interviews and a qualitative scenarios analysis, applying time horizons consistent with our physical risk analysis. Overall, this year’s risk assessment has led to a refreshed list of our priority climate-related risks and opportunities. Read more about our approach to climate-related risk assessment on page 66 Our priority climate-related risks and opportunities 1 Physical risks (1) Extreme weather: Damage to assets or disruption to our own operations or supply chain due to extreme weather events such as storms and cyclones, flooding and wildfires. Our network infrastructure assets are already being affected by extreme weather (e.g. flooding in Germany, wildfires in Greece, cyclones in Mozambique), although currently at a scale that can be managed to avoid major operational impact, asset impairment or cost. Longer term, in combination with geopolitical risks, extreme weather could disrupt supply chains, particularly those that depend on critical regions (such as China for electronic components) or locations (such as coastal ports). Time horizon: Medium term
(2) Rising average temperatures: Rising average temperatures could damage network equipment and other above-ground infrastructure or cause operational failure (particularly if located in exposed outdoor locations, e.g. radio towers), as well as cause disruption in our supply chain. It could also lead to increasing consumption of energy for cooling infrastructure, data centres and offices, which could increase operating costs. We expect this risk to materialise in the medium term, with the most severe impacts in the ‘business as usual’ scenario. Higher frequency of hot days is likely to be more pronounced in our southern European markets (such as Greece and Portugal) and in African markets. Time horizon: Medium term Transition risks (3) Energy costs: Increasingly volatile energy prices and overall higher energy costs, partially driven by carbon pricing and demand for renewable electricity certificates outstripping supply. This risk is particularly prevalent in markets with high dependency on fossil fuels (e.g. to operate diesel generators) and non-renewable energy. However, carbon pricing will also drive an increase in cost to procure carbon-intensive products and raw materials, as third parties upstream in the supply chain look to pass through higher costs. Time horizon: Short term (4) Regulatory compliance costs: As governments introduce policies to support the climate transition, these could impact our product portfolio (such as energy use of fixed line or mobile devices), operations (such as data centres) or corporate sustainability reporting and disclosures. Over the medium term, as these are transposed into law in each of our markets, this could result in a cost to comply or a financial risk from non-compliance. Time horizon: Medium term (5) Expectations of business customers: Loss of market share if climate performance continues to be a differentiator during supplier selection by business customers, and Vodafone does not keep pace with the low carbon products and services offered by competitors, or rising business customer expectations for adhering to climate-related requirements. Time horizon: Medium term (6) Greenwashing risk: Misleading claims about the environmental impact of Vodafone (at a corporate reporting or brand communications level) or its products and services (at a product marketing level) could result in reputation damage, loss of revenues or possibly legal costs. Time horizon: Medium term Transition opportunity (7) Customer enablement: Revenue growth from the design and deployment of green digital solutions that enable business customers to reduce their own GHG emissions, as they seek technology solutions to support their own climate transition. Time horizon: Medium term
Note: 1. As described in the Risk Management section of this report, these climate-related risks and opportunities have been prioritised based on their potential severity, likelihood and time horizon relative to the full range of climate-related risks and opportunities identified through our risk analyses. Their prioritisation does not indicate the significance of the risk or opportunity relative to other risk categories, nor does it indicate the significance of any impact on Vodafone’s financial position. We therefore refer to these as our ’priority’, rather than ‘material’ risks.
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