Example
An omitted emission source may materially change an inventory or a reader's judgement.
The catch
Financial, impact and assurance contexts use different definitions.
Related terms
Audit trail, Calibration, Carbon neutral, Climate positive, Conflict of interest, Contribution claim
In more depth
Materiality, explained.
Materiality decides what a report must include, so it is a common place for inconvenient topics to disappear. Under the EU's CSRD, companies apply double materiality. A topic counts if the company's impacts on people or the environment are significant, or if the topic creates financial risks or opportunities that matter to the company, and meeting either test is enough.
Verifiers use a narrower, numerical idea. They set a threshold, usually a share of total reported emissions, above which an error or omission would change a reader's conclusion. When a company excludes a Scope 3 emissions category as immaterial, it should state the reasoning and the threshold used. A materiality assessment built on a stakeholder survey shows what people care about. It cannot by itself show where the largest emissions sit.