Home » NewsTNFD marks continued global momentum and new capability-building initiatives one year after release of disclosure recommendations Date Posted 18th September 2024 LONDON, UK | 18 September 2024 The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) today marks the one-year anniversary of the launch of its recommendations at the New York Stock Exchange during Climate Week 2023. Building on the momentum created over the past year, the TNFD calls on companies and financial institutions across sectors and geographies to get started with their nature-related reporting and align to the global policy goals and targets that will again be the focus of international discussions at the Convention on Biological Diversity COP16 in Cali, Colombia next month. In the year since the launch of the TNFD disclosure recommendations, over 440 organisations from 49 jurisdictions and across 62 of 77 SICS sectors have commenced their reporting of nature-related issues. They represent over $6 trillion in market capitalisation among publicly-listed companies and over $16 trillion in AUM among asset owners and managers. 25% of Global Systemically Important Banks (GSIBs) have now committed to nature-related assessment and reporting. Responding to the growing interest and information needs of investors as well as global regulatory development from Europe to China and Africa, first-generation TNFD-aligned disclosures have already begun to emerge. “Nature is now firmly and widely recognised as a strategic risk management issue for business and finance – no longer just a corporate social responsibility one. This shift in mindset since the climate COP in Glasgow in 2021 to today is significant. Investors and corporate leaders are increasingly appreciative of the reality that the resilience of their cashflows depends on the resilience of nature – the flow of inputs into their business models from soil nutrients for our food system to the water relied on to manufacture semiconductor chips. Nature resilience is everyone’s business.”David Craig, Co-Chair of the TNFD In addition to its disclosure recommendations building on the TCFD and consistent with standards issued by ISSB, GRI and EFRAG, the TNFD has also recommended a set of cross-sector and sector-specific indicators and metrics developed with extensive input from global scientific organisations and standards bodies. Its LEAP approach, developed through an open innovation process with the market, including over 240 pilot tests, is now being used by hundreds of organisations globally and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards state that companies may use it to conduct their materiality assessment in relation to Europe’s CSRD reporting requirements. To help build further momentum for voluntary market adoption, the TNFD is now expanding its partnerships and activities to support the implementation, capability building and data needs of market participants. Nature transition planning and other guidance set for release Building on the growing market recognition that there is no credible path to net zero without nature, TNFD has been working closely on nature transition planning guidance, collaborating with GFANZ, UK TPT, WWF and others, a draft of which will be released at COP16 for consultation. Following the release of a first tranche of sector guidance in June this year, the Taskforce is also working on a second tranche of sector guidance to be released in Q1 2025. Other ongoing technical work includes research on financed nature-related impacts, measurement of nature-related issues in the ocean realm and the assessment of nature-related risks by corporates and financial institutions. Contribution to streamlining the global reporting landscape Following the publication of mappings of its recommendations and metrics to the existing reporting standards provided by GRI and EFRAG, the Taskforce has responded to market calls for greater simplicity and efficiency by publicly supporting the use of cross-reference tables. Cross-reference tables have been used by a number of organisations that have published their first-generation TNFD reports in the first half of 2024, demonstrating the efficiency and value – both for report preparers and report users – of articulating material sustainability-related information in one place when appropriate to do so. The Taskforce is continuing its close collaboration both with GRI and with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to support its research project on biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services (BEES). “TNFD has helped raise the importance of nature-related disclosures in the consciousness of companies around the world, a topic we know investors are demanding better information on. As the ISSB embarks on its research project on biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services, we are committed to considering how to build on relevant initiatives – including the recommendations of the TNFD – to meet the information needs of investors globally. By building on the work of others where appropriate we are best able to reduce fragmentation and deliver a cost-effective disclosure landscape, a goal we share with TNFD. We are encouraged by continued progress towards rationalising the disclosure landscape and look forward to working with our colleagues at TNFD as our research develops.”Sue Lloyd, Vice-Chair of the ISSB The Taskforce has also signed an MOU with CDP to deepen collaboration, including current efforts to support CDP with the full incorporation of the TNFD recommendations into CDP’s global disclosure platform. More than 23,000 companies worth 66% of global market capitalisation disclosed through CDP in 2023, with over a third of those already disclosing on nature-related issues beyond climate. The first steps were taken this year as CDP expanded its alignment with the TNFD recommendations, meaning that companies disclosing through CDP before 16 October can start their TNFD adoption journey and disclose TNFD-aligned primary data directly to their stakeholders and the wider global market. “CDP is delighted to be the key global nature disclosure partner of TNFD. In the 15 years since we pioneered disclosure on water security and deforestation, CDP has become firmly established as the place for corporates to report and financial markets to access robust, holistic environmental data. CDP’s ongoing alignment with TNFD will bring much needed clarity to the market, enabling TNFD-aligned data to be written once through CDP’s platform, but used by many stakeholders across the global economy. This is an important step towards surfacing the standardized, globally comparable information on nature that global capital markets have long called for. Through this important collaboration, CDP and TNFD are building a more efficient ecosystem, empowering companies to pivot from duplicative reporting to meaningful action on both climate and nature.”Sherry Madeira, CEO of CDP Meeting the capability-building needs of market participants With over 1,600 organisations now members of the TNFD Forum, 17 national or regional Consultation Groups established around the world and over 440 TNFD Adopters, the Taskforce has seen significant demand for practical skills and capability-building support across markets and sectors. TNFD’s guidance documents have been downloaded over 220,000 times in the last 12 months. To respond to market demand, the TNFD is now assembling a global network of training and delivery partners, including PRI, UNEP-FI, WBCSD, the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative and others, to help expand global access to high-quality TNFD-related training and education materials. With the support of experts from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), a suite of open-source training materials based on the TNFD’s technical guidance is now under development ready for release at the end of this year. Addressing data challenges Since its launch, the TNFD has undertaken considerable work on data-related challenges and the imperative to enable the nature intelligence needs of market participants. Over 150 organisations have joined the TNFD Data Catalyst community as the launch of the TNFD in 2021 proved to be an important demand signal stimulating a growing global network of new nature data startups and solution providers. Following the August 2023 release of a scoping study into the concept of a Nature-related Data Public Facility (NDPF) inspired by the emissions-focused Net Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU), the TNFD has assembled a global network of experts across the nature data value chain – from nature data providers and data users – to develop a blueprint for a NDPF. The Taskforce intends to release the blueprint and development roadmap for a NDPF at the World Biodiversity Summit coinciding with COP16. Catalysing further global adoption on nature-related issues The next cohort of TNFD Adopters will also be announced at COP16 in Cali, Colombia in October 2024. The TNFD invites organisations wishing to become TNFD Adopters to complete the online TNFD Adopter registration form by 11 October to be included in the next formal announcement. Learn more and read our Adopter FAQs. Highlighting the value proposition of TNFD adoption, Juan Jose Freijo, Chief Sustainability Officer of Brambles, said: “Brambles’ decision to become an early adopter of the TNFD framework builds on the advantages of our circular business model which has demonstrated environmental benefits over single-use alternative systems. The TNFD challenges a deeper investigation of a business’s dependencies and impacts on the natural world and its ecosystems so that companies can develop an integrated strategy that accounts for how their resource base can support long-term value creation. It also facilitates a more holistic approach to macro-level risk management while focusing the strategy on the commercial opportunities available in a more sustainable social and economic system.”Juan Jose Freijo, Chief Sustainability Officer of Brambles ABOUT THE TASKFORCE ON NATURE-RELATED FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES (TNFD) The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is a market-led, science-based and government-backed initiative providing organisations with the tools to act on evolving nature-related issues. It was launched in June 2021 with the support of the G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group and financial support from a number of governments and philanthropic foundations. In September 2023, the TNFD published a set of disclosure recommendations and guidance that encourage and enable business and finance to assess, report and act on their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. The TNFD recommendations now operationalise Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreed to by over 190 governments at the CBD COP15 in Montreal in 2022 and enable businesses and finance to integrate nature into their governance, strategy, risk management and capital allocation decision making. The goal of the Taskforce is to support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes, aligned with the Global Biodiversity Framework. With the recommendations released, the Taskforce is now focusing its efforts on encouraging and supporting voluntary market adoption and supporting efforts to address the implementation, capability building and data needs of market participants. The Taskforce is comprised of 40 senior executives drawn from leading financial institutions, corporates and market service providers from around the world and across sectors, with combined assets of over US$20 trillion. Twenty core knowledge partners from leading science, standards, and data institutions feed into the work of the Taskforce. A group of over 1,600 organisations support the work of the Taskforce as institutional members of the TNFD Forum. Over 440 organisations globally have now committed to start reporting on their nature-related issues aligned to the recommendations of the TNFD. MEDIA CONTACTS Rita Lockheart, Communications Lead, rita.lockheart@tnfd,global [email protected]