Assurance report of the independent German Public Auditor on an assurance engagement to obtain limited and reasonable assurance in relation to the group sustainability statement

To the Covestro AG

Assurance Conclusion and Opinion

We have conducted a limited assurance engagement on the Group Sustainability Statement, taking into account, as set forth in the subsequent paragraph, the reasonable assurance engagement on disclosures marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’ in the Group Sustainability Statement included in section Group Sustainability Report of the combined management report, of Covestro AG for the financial year from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024. The Group Sustainability Statement was prepared to fulfil the requirements of Directive (EU) 2022/2464 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, CSRD) and Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 as well as Sections 315b and 315c of the HGB [Handelsgesetzbuch: German Commercial Code] for a group non-financial statement.

Based on the particular engagement, we have conducted a reasonable assurance engagement on the disclosures marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’ in the Group Sustainability Statement. A reasonable assurance engagement on these disclosures fulfils the requirements for a limited assurance engagement and, in accordance with Recital 60 to the CSRD, thereby complies with the requirements of the CSRD relating to assurance of the Group Sustainability Statement.

Based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained as part of our limited assurance engagement, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the accompanying Group Sustainability Statement, taking into account the disclosures in the Group Sustainability Statement marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’and subject to a reasonable assurance engagement, is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements of the CSRD and Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852, Sections 315b and 315c HGB for a group non-financial statement and the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company. This assurance conclusion includes that nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that:

• the accompanying Group Sustainability Statement does not comply, in all material respects, with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), including that the process carried out by the entity to identify information to be included in the Group Sustainability Statement (the materiality assessment) is not, in all material respects, in accordance with the description set out in section ‘Management of impacts, risks and opportunities’ of the Group Sustainability Statement, or
• the disclosures in the Group Sustainability Statement marked with ‘Information pursuant to Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852 (Taxonomy Regulation)’ do not comply, in all material respects, with Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2020/852.

In our opinion, on the basis of our reasonable assurance engagement, the disclosures marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’ in the Group Sustainability Statement were prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements applicable to these disclosures and the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company.

Basis for the Assurance Conclusion and Opinion

We conducted our assurance engagement in accordance with International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB).

The procedures in a limited assurance engagement vary in nature and timing from, and are less in extent than for, a reasonable assurance engagement. Consequently, the level of assurance obtained is substantially lower than the assurance that would have been obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement been performed.

Our responsibilities under ISAE 3000 (Revised) are further described in the section “German Public Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Assurance Engagement on the Group Sustainability Statement”.

We are independent of the entity in accordance with the requirements of European law and German commercial and professional law, and we have fulfilled our other German professional responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. Our audit firm has applied the requirements for a system of quality control as set forth in the IDW Quality Management Standard issued by the Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer (Institute of Public Auditors in Germany, IDW): Requirements for Quality Management in the Audit Firm (IDW QMS 1 (09.2022)) and International Standard on Quality Management (ISQM) 1 issued by the IAASB. We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our assurance conclusion and opinion.

Responsibilities of the Executive Directors and the Supervisory Board for the Group Sustainability Statement

The executive directors are responsible for the preparation of the Group Sustainability Statement in accordance with the requirements of the CSRD and the applicable German legal and other European requirements as well as with the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company and for designing, implementing and maintaining such internal control that they have considered necessary to enable the preparation of the Group Sustainability Statement in accordance with these requirements that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud (i.e., fraudulent sustainability reporting in the Group Sustainability Statement) or error.

This responsibility of the executive directors includes establishing and maintaining the materiality assessment process, selecting and applying appropriate reporting policies for preparing the Group Sustainability Statement, as well as making assumptions and estimates and ascertaining forward-looking information for individual sustainability-related disclosures.

The Supervisory Board is responsible for overseeing the process for the preparation of the Group Sustainability Statement.

Inherent Limitations in Preparing the Group Sustainability Statement

The CSRD and the applicable German legal and other European requirements contain wording and terms that are subject to considerable interpretation uncertainties and for which no authoritative, comprehensive interpretations have yet been published. As such wording and terms may be interpreted differently by regulators or courts, the legality of measurements or evaluations of sustainability matters based on these interpretations is uncertain.

These inherent limitations also affect the assurance engagement on the Group Sustainability Statement.

German Public Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Assurance Engagement on the Group Sustainability Statement

Our objectives are

• to express a limited assurance conclusion, based on the assurance engagement we have conducted, on whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the Group Sustainability Statement, taking into account the disclosures in the Group Sustainability Statement marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’ and subject to a reasonable assurance engagement, has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the CSRD, the applicable German legal and other European requirements and the supplementary criteria presented by the company’s executive directors, and to issue an assurance report that includes our assurance conclusion on the Group Sustainability Statement, taking into account the disclosures in the Group Sustainability Statement marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’ and subject to a reasonable assurance engagement.
• to express a reasonable assurance opinion, based on the assurance engagement we have conducted on whether the disclosures marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’ in the Group Sustainability Statement are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the requirements applicable to these disclosures and the supplementary criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company.

As part of an assurance engagement in accordance with ISAE 3000 (Revised), we exercise professional judgment and maintain professional skepticism. We also:

a) for the limited assurance engagement

• obtain an understanding of the process used to prepare the Group Sustainability Statement, including the materiality assessment process carried out by the entity to identify the disclosures to be reported in the Group Sustainability Statement.
• identify disclosures where a material misstatement due to fraud or error is likely to arise, design and perform procedures to address these disclosures and obtain limited assurance to support the assurance conclusion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations or the override of internal control. In addition, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources not within entity’s control (value chain information) is ordinarily higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources within the entity’s control, as both the entity’s executive directors and we as practitioners are ordinarily subject to restrictions on direct access to the sources of the value chain information.
• consider the forward-looking information, including the appropriateness of the underlying assumptions. There is a substantial unavoidable risk that future events will differ materially from the forward-looking information.

b) for the reasonable assurance engagement

• perform risk assessment procedures, including obtaining an understanding of the internal controls that are relevant to the assurance engagement on the disclosures marked with a curly bracket ‘{ }’ in the Group Sustainability Statement in order to identify and assess the risks of material misstatement at the assertion level due to fraud or error, but not for the purpose of expressing an assurance opinion on the effectiveness of these internal controls of the Company. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or override of internal control. In addition, the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources in the value chain not within the entity’s control (value chain information) is ordinarily higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement in information obtained from sources within the entity’s control, as both the entity’s executive directors and we as practitioners are ordinarily subject to restrictions on direct access to the sources of the value chain information.

• evaluate the appropriate derivation of the forward-looking disclosures from the significant assumptions and the appropriateness of these assumptions. We do not express a separate assurance opinion either on the forward-looking disclosures nor on the assumptions on which they are based. There is a substantial unavoidable risk that future events will differ materially from the forward-looking disclosures.

Summary of the Procedures Performed for the Limited Assurance Engagement by the German Public Auditor

A limited assurance engagement involves the performance of procedures to obtain evidence about the sustainability information. The nature, timing and extent of the selected procedures are subject to our professional judgment.

In performing our limited assurance engagement, we:

• evaluated the suitability of the criteria as a whole presented by the executive directors in the Group Sustainability Statement
• inquired of the executive directors and relevant employees involved in the preparation of the Group Sustainability Statement about the preparation process, including the materiality assessment process carried out by the entity to identify the disclosures to be reported in the Group Sustainability Statement, and about the internal controls relating to this process
• evaluated the reporting policies used by the executive directors to prepare the Group Sustainability Statement
• evaluated the reasonableness of the estimates and related information provided by the executive directors. If, in accordance with the ESRS, the executive directors estimate the value chain information to be reported for a case in which the executive directors are unable to obtain the information from the value chain despite making reasonable efforts, our assurance engagement is limited to evaluating whether the executive directors have undertaken these estimates in accordance with the ESRS and assessing the reasonableness of these estimates, but does not include identifying information in the value chain that the executive directors were unable to obtain
• performed analytical procedures and made inquiries in relation to selected information in the Group Sustainability Statement
• conducted site visits
• considered the presentation of the information in the Group Sustainability Statement
• considered the process for identifying taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities and the corresponding disclosures in the Group Sustainability Statement].

Restriction of Use / Clause on General Engagement Term

This assurance report is solely addressed to Covestro AG

The engagement, in the performance of which we have provided the services described above on behalf of Covestro AG, was carried out on the basis of the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüferinnen, Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirtschaftsprüferinnen, Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) dated as of January 1, 2024 (www. kpmg.de/AAB_2024). By taking note of and using the information as contained in our report each recipient confirms to have taken note of the terms and conditions stipulated in the aforementioned General Engagement Terms (including the liability limitations specified in item No. 9 included therein) and acknowledges their validity in relation to us.

Düsseldorf, February 21, 2025

KPMG AG
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

[Original German version signed by:]