Global businesses and financial firms join TNFD to tackle nature-related risks

TNFD Announces Taskforce Members and Launch of Consultative Forum, Leveraging Global Nature and Finance Expertise

Taskforce Members will work with TNFD Co-Chairs to deliver the Framework in the next two years

  • 30 senior executives from financial institutions, corporates and service providers have been appointed as Taskforce Members to drive work on the TNFD framework
  • More than 100 institutions have signed up to provide support to the Taskforce by joining the TNFD Forum, a consultative grouping of institutional supporters, making available their global, cross-sector expertise when required
  • Taskforce Members to form five Working Groups to drive forward preparation of a beta framework to be launched in early 2022

London, 30 September 2021: Senior executives from across financial institutions, corporates and market service providers representing major global markets have been selected to serve for two years as Members of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

Led by TNFD Co-Chairs Elizabeth Mrema, United Nations Assistant Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and David Craig, Former CEO of Refinitiv and Strategic Advisor to London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), the Taskforce Members are convening for the first time on the 6th of October to kick off their work developing and delivering a risk management and financial disclosure framework to support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and towards nature-positive outcomes.

The finalised framework is earmarked for release in late 2023. However, a draft beta version will be circulated in early 2022 to be tested and refined via an open-innovation approach with market participants throughout next year.

The 30 Taskforce Members have been selected for their sector and geographical coverage and their individual subject-matter expertise across nature and finance that can support TNFD’s mission. The Members represent sectors with the largest impact and dependencies on nature, such as agribusiness, the blue economy, food & beverage, mining, construction, infrastructure and others, and are globally representative coming from 14 countries across 5 continents.

The Taskforce membership will ultimately consist of up to 35 individuals. Selection of the remaining senior executives is currently underway, bringing in further specialists from sectors and geographies to broaden the Taskforce’s geographic and sector coverage and its diversity of expertise.

Ms Herry Cho, Head of Sustainability and Sustainable Finance, Singapore Exchange (SGX), said: “The financial rationale for managing nature-related risks is increasingly clear now, but the information for identifying and acting on the risks in practice is not easily available. By joining the TNFD as a Taskforce Member, I look forward to contributing to TNFD’s efforts in developing a risk management and disclosure framework, and to working together with our ecosystem to ensure key inputs from broad sets of stakeholders are captured.”

“As a company operating in the food and beverage sector, addressing nature-related risks is a business imperative for Nestlé. We are already working on this within our organisation, but the complexity of the challenge requires collaboration, and so I’m thrilled to be joining the TNFD as a Taskforce Member. I’m looking forward to working with the other Members and wider network of stakeholders to develop a framework that will enable organisations like ours to both manage risks and identify opportunities in the nature space,” added Alison Bewick, Head of Group Risk Management, Nestlé.

Each Taskforce Member will be part of at least one of five initial Working Groups through which the specific, technical work will begin to develop the TNFD framework.

The five Working Groups comprise of and their work will focus on:

  1. Defining nature-related risks
  2. Data availability
  3. Landscape of standards and metrics
  4. Development of a Beta framework
  5. Pilot testing and integration

Supporting the work of the Taskforce itself is a broader consultative body of institutional supporters and partners known as the TNFD Forum.

The TNFD Forum is a global multi-disciplinary consultative group of institutions launching with over 100 Forum members. These institutions share the vision and mission of the TNFD and have expressed the willingness to make themselves available to contribute to the work of the Taskforce. The TNFD Forum is open for membership and expected to grow over time as more organisations become aware of the importance of their engagement and come on board to support a shift in financial flows towards nature-positive outcomes. In addition to the already confirmed Forum members, a further 100 institutions have also expressed interest in joining the Forum in the short term.

A TNFD Secretariat is in place to support the work of the Co-Chairs, the Taskforce Members and their Working Groups Leads.

“Citi is pleased to be joining the new TNFD Forum, which we see as an important space for financial institutions and other stakeholders to contribute their collective expertise towards the common goal of developing a framework for managing nature-related risks. We are looking forward to supporting the Taskforce as a Forum member over the next two years”, said Keith Tuffley, Managing Director, Vice Chairman and Global Co-Head of Sustainability & Corporate Transitions, Citi.

“The business and financial world’s race towards net zero emissions will only succeed if they race equally fast towards nature-positivity. While the importance and urgency of our work is clear, so is the complexity of the challenge ahead for the TNFD. The TNFD initiative is by the market for the market. Therefore, development of a practical framework for nature-related risks will only be achievable by bringing together market practitioners and experts in biodiversity, data, metrics and standards, risk management and disclosure frameworks into a unique collaborative endeavour. We are looking forward to immediately starting the work with our Taskforce Members.” said TNFD Co-Chairs, Elizabeth Mrema and David Craig.


See the full list of Taskforce Members and the confirmed TNFD Forum.

For more information, contact:

Annebeth Wijtenburg, Communications Lead, TNFD

[email protected]

Listing image: PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay