April 2021 Newsletter

News 4 May 2021

In short: The four workstreams of the Informal Working Group finalise documents, the informal Technical Expert Group finalises scope of the TNFD, and the UN Deputy Secretary-General endorses the TNFD, remarking it will ‘catalyse shifting of financial flows’.

Highlights of the month

The four workstreams of the Informal Working Group (IWG) finalise documents

Over the last seven months, the 74 members of the Informal Working Group (IWG) have been working across four different workstreams: WS1 Governance, leadership and membership, WS2 Work Plan and Budget, WS3 Resourcing, and WS4 Advocacy and Communication. Additionally, an informal Technical Expert Group that supports the IWG has been working on the TNFD scope (see below). The workstreams are in the last stretch of finalising their recommendations from the IWG to the TNFD itself, which will launch later this year. The consolidated recommendations from the workstreams will be presented to the incoming TNFD Chair/s in the TNFD blueprint. Furthermore, preparation for transitioning from IWG to the TNFD is under way.

The IWG’s informal Technical Expert Group finalise the scope for the TNFD

Alongside the four workstreams of the IWG, a fifth workstream tasked with defining the scope of TNFD is led by the IWG’s informal Technical Expert Group. The 12 technical experts that make up the group have now finalised the draft paper of the scope, after a round of productive stakeholder consultations this spring with the Observer Group and further deep dives with corporates, standards groups, financial institutions, data providers and NGOs. This week the IWG is in the midst of reviewing the scope.

UN Deputy Secretary-General endorses the TNFD

Speaking at the High-Level event on Raising Ambition for Nature, UN Deputy SecretaryGeneral Amina Mohammed said: “We are also supporting the establishment of the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures. Working with many financial institutions, businesses and Member States, this Taskforce will catalyse shifting of financial flows, so they become nature-positive.” You can watch the full event recording here. In September 2020, the UN Secretary General also voiced his support for the TNFD.

Knowledge Bank on the new TNFD website continues to expand

The new website hosts an ever-expanding Knowledge Bank with lots of resources relevant to the TNFD initiative, as well as an events page highlighting the events that address nature and finance, amongst other new interactive features. Get in touch to share relevant events or cutting-edge tools and resources on nature and finance by emailing [email protected].

Join the TNFD conversation on social media

To stay up to date with the latest news, follow us on Twitter @TNFD_ and LinkedIn @Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) .

Opportunities to join initiatives and events

  • 11 May: PRI Digital Forum: Joining the dots: Investor action on Climate and Nature. Speakers – including Margaret Kuhlow, WWF Global Finance Practice Lead – will draw together climate change and biodiversity loss as two critically important topics and highlight some of the approaches investors can take to achieve progress on both fronts.
  • 11-12 May Valuing Nature: Better Assessing Financial Risk. During this workshop, participants will detail how science-based data can augment traditional risk systems to provide insights for the sustainable financing of natural capital. Dr. Susanne Schmitt and David Patterson from WWF UK are among the speakers.
  • 20 May: Briefing Afternoon: Biodiversity. Environmental Finance is hosting a briefing afternoon event, which will consider the main challenges for valuing and preserving nature when making investment decisions.
  • 26 May: Aligning Financial Portfolios with Biodiversity Goals. Join Global Canopy, UNEP FI and UNEP WCMC for the launch of a new biodiversity module – part of the online ENCORE tool – which will enable financial institutions to identify and manage biodiversity-related risks and opportunities.
  • 26-27 May: Positive Banking Conference: Banking for People and Planet. The conference will include a session on the TNFD. You can see the agenda, speakers and register here.
  • 27 May: BusinessGreen Net Zero Nature. Speakers include Rhian-Mari Thomas, cochair of the IWG and CEO of the Green Finance Institute; Eric Usher, Head of UNEP FI; Tanya Steele, Chief Executive of WWF UK; and Sir Partha Dasgupta, lead author of the Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity. You can see the full speaker line up and agenda here.
  • Save the date: 17-18 June: The Financial Sector and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. The virtual event will be hosted by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. You can register here.
  • New date announced: 11-24 October: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15. Originally scheduled for 2020 and since postponed to May 2021, the global UN Biodiversity Conference has been moved again: the event is now planned for 11-24 October 2021 in Kunming, China.

Relevant content released this month

For more relevant content and tools, visit our new Knowledge Bank on the TNFD website.

TNFD in the news (highlights)

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