Sep-Oct newsletter

News 7 October 2021

In short: TNFD announces the 33 Members of the Taskforce, and more than 150 organisations join the consultative TNFD Forum. The TNFD Co-Chairs and Taskforce Members kick off work with the first plenary meeting, and launch the TNFD Development Finance Hub, under the leadership of Agence Française de Développement (AFD). TNFD also announces its Executive Director, Secretariat & administration bodies.

Highlights of the month

33 Taskforce Members join TNFD

Last week, TNFD welcomed 30 senior executives from financial institutions, corporates and market service providers as Taskforce Members. A further three Members joined this week. Led by TNFD Co-Chairs Elizabeth Mrema and David Craig, the Taskforce Members will develop and deliver the TNFD risk management and disclosure framework. The 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 Taskforce is one of the components of the broader TNFD Alliance (see below).

More than 150 institutions join the consultative TNFD Forum

Alongside the 33 individuals that have joined TNFD as Taskforce Members, over 150 institutions have joined the TNFD Forum. The Forum is a global multi-disciplinary consultative group of organisations that 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. In addition to the already confirmed Forum members, a further 150 institutions have also expressed interest in joining the Forum in the short term.

Taskforce Members kick off work with first Plenary meeting & five Working Groups are established

Yesterday, the 33 Taskforce Members and the TNFD Co-Chairs officially kickstarted their work on developing the TNFD risk management and disclosure framework. In a hybrid meeting, the group discussed the overall roadmap and timeline for developing the TNFD framework and the initial phase of specific, technical work, which will take place across five Working Groups: (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.

The final TNFD framework will be released in 2023, however the Members will now work towards delivering a first beta version of the framework by early 2022.

The TNFD Development Finance Hub launches, under the leadership of Agence Française de Développement

Following the first plenary meeting of the Taskforce and Co-Chairs yesterday, Agence Française de Développement launched the TNFD Development Finance Hub, which sits under the umbrella of the TNFD’s broader Knowledge Hub, with the goal of leveraging the emerging markets experience of the world’s 500 public development banks given their long experience investing for positive impact alongside financial return.

TNFD announces Executive Director, Secretariat & administration bodies

In mid-September, TNFD announced its Secretariat will be a globally distributed team hosted by the Green Finance Institute (GFI) and supported by the UNDP and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). TNFD appointed former Deloitte consulting partner and World Bank adviser Tony Goldner as Executive Director of its Secretariat.

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 October: Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP15. The first phase of negotiations of a global biodiversity framework will be held virtually from 11 to 15 October in Kunming, China. TNFD Co-Chair Elizabeth Mrema plays a key role in the summit as Executive Secretary of the CBD, and she will bring TNFD into the agenda.
    • Ecological Civilization Forum: Rhian-Mari Thomas, CEO of the Green Finance Institute, will speak at this official side event hosted by the Government of China.
  • 13 October: Innovate Finance Forum on Sustainability. TNFD Co-Chair David Craig is delivering a keynote address to this event, which centres around leveraging FinTech for sustainability.
  • 19 October: UBS ESG and Sustainability Research Event. TNFD Co-Chair David Craig is speaking on a panel ‘TNFD: What do Investors Need to Know’.
  • 26 October: Climate Finance Day: The event will explore how finance can provide a tool for a significant shift to creating a better future. Andrew Mitchell, who served as Interim Executive Director of TNFD, will be speaking at a Roundtable on biodiversity and finance.
  • 31 October – 12 November: COP26 Glasgow. A number of nature and finance-related events will take place during the UN Climate Change Conference in and around Glasgow, Scotland, as well as virtually. 3 November is the dedicated Finance Day of the summit, while 6 November is the dedicated Nature Day.
  • 11 November: The Sydney Morning Herald Sustainability Summit. TNFD Co-Chair David Craig will speak on a panel on sustainable investment and low-carbon banking.
  • 25 November: Reuters Sustainable Finance & Reporting Europe. TNFD Co-Chair David Craig will speak during a session on addressing nature-related risks and opportunities. The event also features a session on biodiversity impact reporting, ‘Demystifying Metrics’.

Relevant content released this month

  • Nature for Life Hub (6 October): Financial transparency is needed across the climate-nature nexus. Watch TNFD Co-Chair David Craig, TNFD Taskforce Member Koushik Chatterjee of Tata Steel and Keith Tuffley of Citi, a TNFD Forum member, discuss their ideas and hopes for a practical disclosure framework, with support from France’s Bérangère Abba. (Watch from 26 min 06 for 25 mins). Continue watching to hear from Andrew Mitchell, former Interim Executive Director of TNFD, the Science-based Targets Network, World Economic Forum and more. (The session is also available in French & Spanish).
  • CNBC (30 September): We can’t be net zero unless we are nature positive: TNFD Co-Chair. In this video interview, TNFD Co-Chair David Craig sets out how climate and nature are two sides of the same coin, and how the TNFD framework will help organisations address nature-related risks alongside climate risks.
  • Reuters (30 September): Climate change’s grey area gets overdue focus. The short article sets out how the TNFD will complement the recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.
  • Reuters (22 September): World leaders pledge US$ 5 billion to protect nature. Watch the commitments from TNFD Co-Chair Elizabeth Mrema; President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, Germany’s Angel Merkel, UK’s Boris Johnson and heads of state of Colombia, Norway, Belgium and more.
  • Finance for Biodiversity Pledge (21 September): Financial Institutions call for stronger biodiversity policies ahead of COP15. 78 financial institutions with more than US$10.6 trillion in assets under management state that biodiversity loss exposes them to market, credit, liquidity and operational risks, and call for governments to deliver a more ambitious Global Biodiversity Framework at the upcoming United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in October.
  • Financial Times (13 September): Backing biodiversity to save ourselves. This OpEd sets out how new biodiversity funding models are needed for capital to respond effectively to the biodiversity crisis.
  • Thomson Reuters Foundation (8 September): Nature-curious investors await bankable conservation deals. Citing new research, the article sets out how 70 percent of private investors want to increase their investments in conservation, but suitable investment opportunities remain limited due to a combination of small deal sizes, long horizons, high investment risks, low transparency on conservation impacts and a lack of bankable projects.
  • WWF (3 September): How conservationists can help the financial sector address nature loss. In this article, Margaret Kuhlow, WWF’s Finance Lead, looks at lessons learned from finance sector engagement with climate change and argues that three key pillars can catalyse nature-positive investment at scale: recognising and quantifying nature-related risks, disclosing nature-related risks and having a clear goal.

For more relevant content and tools, visit our new Knowledge Bank.

TNFD in the news (highlights)

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