About
Our mission
To develop and deliver a risk management and disclosure framework for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks, with the ultimate aim of supporting a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes.
Who we are
The Taskforce consists of 40 individual Taskforce Members representing financial institutions, corporates and market service providers with over US$20trn in assets. The TNFD Co-Chairs, David Craig and Elizabeth Mrema, lead the Taskforce.
The Taskforce is supported by:
- The TNFD Forum, a consultative grouping of over 900 institutional supporters.
- The TNFD knowledge partners, a group of 18 leading scientific organisations and standard setting bodies
- TNFD Consultation Groups, informal groups convened in select countries and regions to expand outreach and engagement
- The TNFD Stewardship Council, which represents the founders and funders of the TNFD.
- The TNFD Secretariat, which manages and coordinates the Taskforce, the TNFD Forum and the TNFD knowledge partners.
The challenge we solve
Nature loss poses both risks and opportunities for business, now and in the future. More than half of the world’s economic output – US$44tn of economic value generation – is moderately or highly dependent on nature.
Currently, financial institutions and companies don’t have the information they need to understand how nature impacts the organisation’s immediate financial performance, or the longer-term financial risks that may arise from how the organisation, positively or negatively, impacts nature.
Better information will allow financial institutions and companies to incorporate nature-related risks and opportunities into their strategic planning, risk management and asset allocation decisions.
Our work
TNFD is adopting an open innovation approach that encourages market participants to support development of the framework. By taking this approach, TNFD hopes to accelerate the framework’s development, source constructive feedback and steadily improve its relevance, usability and effectiveness.
A market-led approach, combined with input from leading science and data bodies, means the TNFD framework is scientifically rigorous and easy to adopt for both businesses and financial institutions. TNFD is not developing a new standard. We are creating an integrated framework that builds on existing standards, metrics and data.
In November 2022, TNFD released the third version of its beta framework for market consultation, building on v0.1 released in March 2022 and v0.2 released in June 2022. The next version of the beta framework will be released in March 2023 (v0.4), before the release of version v1.0 of the full framework for market adoption in September 2023.
Our principles
The TNFD’s work will build on seven principles: market usability, science-based, nature-related risks, purpose-driven, integrated & adaptive, climate-nature nexus and globally inclusive.
History
An initiative to bring together a Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures was announced in July 2020, with the preparatory phase of the initiative running from September 2020 until June 2021.
During this preparatory phase, an Informal Working Group – comprising 75 members, including 49 financial institutions and corporates, 8 governments and 18 consortiums – worked on the scope and workplan of the TNFD.
The Informal Working Group was supported by an Informal Technical Expert Group, and a Founding Partner Group consisting of Global Canopy, UNDP, UNEP FI, and WWF. An Observer Group followed and commented on the activities of the Informal Working Group.
In June 2021, the TNFD formally launched to widespread support from financial institutions, corporates, governments and civil society. The G7 Finance Ministers and G20 Sustainable Finance Roadmap have endorsed the TNFD. The G20 and G7 Environment and Climate Ministers have also recognised the establishment of the TNFD. Other individual leaders have also endorsed TNFD, including Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance; UN Secretary General António Guterres, President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson.
Funding
Funding for the TNFD is provided by governments, the UN, and philanthropic foundations, including the governments of Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Macdoch Foundation, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The TNFD also benefits from pro-bono support offered by Taskforce member organisations, TNFD Forum organisations and governments.