Limited Assurance Report of the Independent Auditor Regarding the Integrated Non-Financial Group Statement ¹

To the Supervisory Board of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein

We have performed a limited assurance engagement on the integrated non-financial group statement of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein (hereinafter the "BASF") for the period from January 1, to December 31, 2022 (hereinafter the "integrated non-financial statement") [included in section “Overview of the group management report” of the integrated group management report].

For the most significant non-financial steering KPI “CO2 emissions”, a reasonable assurance engagement has been performed.

As described in the section “Supplier Management” BASF engaged the external provider EcoVadis to perform audits on suppliers to ensure compliance with environmental, social, and corporate governance standards of the “Together for Sustainability” (TfS) initiative. The adequacy and accuracy of the conclusions from these external assessments were not part of our assurance engagement.

Responsibilities of Management

The legal representatives of BASF SE are responsible for the preparation of the integrated non-financial group statement for the period from January 1, to December 31, 2022 in accordance with Sections 315b, 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e of the German Commercial Code and Article 8 of REGULATION (EU) 2020/852 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18. June 2020 on establishing a framework to facilitate sustainable investment and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (hereinafter the "EU Taxonomy Regulation") and the delegated acts adopted in this regard, as well as with their own interpretation of the wording and terms contained in the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the delegated acts adopted in this regard, as presented in section "EU Taxonomy" of the integrated non-financial group statement].

This responsibility includes the selection and application of appropriate non-financial reporting methods and making assumptions and estimates about individual non-financial disclosures of the group that are reasonable in the circumstances. Furthermore, management is responsible for such internal control as they consider necessary to enable the preparation of a consolidated non-financial statement that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

The EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts issued thereunder contain wording and terms that are still subject to considerable interpretation uncertainties and for which clarifications have not yet been published in every case. Therefore, management has disclosed their interpretation of the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the Delegated Acts adopted thereunder in section “EU Taxonomy” of the consolidated non-financial statement. They are responsible for the defensibility of this interpretation. Due to the immanent risk that indeterminate legal terms may be interpreted differently; the legal conformity of the interpretation is subject to uncertainties.

Independence and Quality Assurance of the Assurance Practitioner’s firm

We have complied with the independence and quality assurance requirements set out in the national legal provisions and professional pronouncements, in particular the Professional Code for German Public Auditors and Chartered Accountants (in Germany) and the quality assurance standard of the German Institute of Public Auditors (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer, IDW) regarding quality assurance requirements in audit practice (IDW QS 1).

Responsibility of the Assurance Practitioner

Our responsibility is to express a conclusion with limited assurance on the integrated non-financial group statement and with reasonable assurance on the significant non-financial performance indicator "CO2 emissions" based on our audit.

Limited Assurance Engagement

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standard on Assurance Engagements ISAE 3000 (Revised) "Assurance Engagements Other Than Audits Or Reviews Of Historical Financial Information" and International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3410: "Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements", issued by the IAASB, as a limited assurance engagement. Those standards require that we plan and perform the assurance engagement to obtain limited assurance about whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the Company's integrated non-financial corporate statement, except for the external sources of documentation or expert opinions mentioned in the integrated non-financial corporate statement, is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with §§ 315b, 315c i. in conjunction with 289c to 289e of the German Commercial Code (HGB) and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the delegated acts issued in this regard, as well as the interpretation by the legal representatives as presented in the section "EU Taxonomy" of the integrated non-financial group statement.

In a limited assurance engagement, the procedures performed are less extensive than in a reasonable assurance engagement, and accordingly, a substantially lower level of assurance is obtained. The selection of the assurance procedures is subject to the professional judgment of the assurance practitioner.

In the course of our assurance engagement we have, among other things, performed the following assurance procedures and other activities:

• Inquiries of personnel on group level who are responsible for the materiality analysis to get an understanding of the process for identifying material topics and respective report boundaries of BASF Group.
• A risk analysis, including a media research, to identify relevant information on BASF Group sustainability performance in the reporting period.
• Evaluation of the design and implementation of the systems and processes for the collection, processing and monitoring of the disclosures and key figures included in the scope of the audit, including the consolidation of the data. 
• Inquiries of personnel on group level who are responsible for the identification and consolidation as well as the execution of the internal control procedures relating to the data concerned, including the accompanying explanatory notes. 
• Evaluation of selected internal and external documents.
• Analytical evaluation of data and trends of quantitative disclosures which are reported by all sites on group level.
• Evaluation of the local data collection, validation and reporting processes as well as the reliability of the reported data through a sample survey at selected BASF Group sites.
• Assessment of the overall presentation of the disclosures 

In determining the disclosures in accordance with Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation, management is required to interpret undefined legal terms. Due to the immanent risk that undefined legal terms may be interpreted differently, the legal conformity of their interpretation and, accordingly, our assurance engagement thereon are subject to uncertainties.

Reasonable Assurance Engagement

For the significant non-financial performance indicator "CO2 emissions", we conducted our audit in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements ISAE 3000 (Revised) "Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information" as a Reasonable Assurance Engagement " and the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3410: "Assurance Engagements on Greenhouse Gas Statements", issued by the IAASB, as a reasonable assurance engagement. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the "CO2 emissions" statement for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2022 is prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with §§ 315b,315c in conjunction with 289c-e HGB. The procedures selected depend on the auditor's judgment.

As part of our engagement to obtain reasonable assurance on the key non-financial performance indicator "CO2 emissions", we have performed the following audit procedures and other activities, among others:

• A risk analysis, including a media research, to identify relevant information on BASF sustainability performance in the reporting period in relation to the KPI “CO2 emissions “
• Evaluation of the design and implementation of systems and processes for the collection, processing and monitoring of disclosures, including the consolidation of the data for the KPI „ CO2 emissions “
• Performing control-based assurance procedures to assess the design and effectiveness of internal controls used to collect and process non-financial disclosures and data, including the consolidation of the data at group level for the KPI “CO2 emissions”
• Substantive assurance procedures using, in particular, internal and external documentation 
• Analytical evaluation of data and trends of quantitative disclosures for the KPI “CO2 emissions“ which are reported by all sites to group level for consolidation
• Evaluation of local data collection validation and reporting processes and reliability of reported data at Yeosu (South Korea), Shanghai (China), Antwerp (Belgium), Kuantan (Malaysia), Beaumont, Port Arthur and Geismar (United States of America), Chalampe-Alsachimie (France) and Ludwigshafen (Germany) sites.

Assurance Opinion

Based on the audit procedures performed and the audit evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the integrated non-financial group statement of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, for the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with Section 315b, 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and the EU Taxonomy Regulation. December 31, 2022 has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with sections 315b, 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e of the German Commercial Code (HGB) and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the related delegated acts and the interpretation by management set out in the section "EU Taxonomy" of the integrated non-financial group statement.

In our opinion, the significant non-financial performance indicator "CO2 emissions" of BASF Group for the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 has been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with Sections 315b, 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB. 

We do not express an audit opinion on the external sources of documentation or expert opinions identified as unaudited in the integrated non-financial group statement.

Restriction of Use

This assurance report is solely addressed to BASF SE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein only.

Our assignment for BASF SE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, and professional liability is governed by the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer (German Public Auditors) and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (German Public Audit Firms) (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) in the version dated January 1, 2017 (https://www.kpmg.de/bescheinigungen/lib/aab_english.pdf). By reading and using the information contained in this assurance report, each recipient confirms having taken note of provisions of the General Engagement Terms (including the limitation of our liability for negligence to EUR 4 million as stipulated in No. 9) and accepts the validity of the attached General Engagement Terms with respect to us.

Mannheim, 21 February 2023

KPMG AG
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
[Original German version signed by:]