Home » NewsTNFD publishes draft guidance on nature transition planning at COP16 Date Posted 27th October 2024 PRESS RELEASE | ENGLISH | SPANISH CALI, COLOMBIA, 27 October 2024: The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) today published a discussion paper that sets out draft guidance on nature transition planning for corporates and financial institutions developing and disclosing a transition plan in line with the TNFD recommended disclosures. The announcement was made at The rise of nature in transition planning session, hosted by TNFD and GFANZ in Cali, Colombia in the Green Zone of COP16. The mission of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) is to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, towards a 2050 vision of a world living in harmony with nature. Delivering the transition implied by this international agreement requires significant changes to business practices across all sectors. As such, a nature transition plan – as defined in the discussion paper – lays out an organisation’s goals, targets, actions, accountability mechanisms and intended resources to respond and contribute to the transition implied by the GBF. In developing this draft guidance, TNFD has built on current market practice for climate transition planning, particularly on the work of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) and on the recommendations of the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) for climate transition plan disclosure. This is helping the TNFD facilitate an integrated approach to transition planning and disclosure. Emily McKenzie, Technical Director at TNFD, said: “Every business has impacts and dependencies on nature. They also face growing physical, transition and systemic risks as the resilience of nature underpinning our economies and societies continues to erode. It is now critical for organisations to consider the concrete actions they are going to take to address those issues – for the benefit of their own organisation and to contribute to the achievement of nature positive outcomes as called for by the Global Biodiversity Framework. The discussion paper released today builds on market practice and experience with net zero transition planning – particularly the approach and guidance provided by GFANZ and the TPT – and ultimately seeks to move towards integrated transition planning for the benefit of investors and other stakeholders.” GFANZ has published voluntary guidance for consultation on incorporating nature into net zero transition plans for financial institutions. TNFD’s draft guidance builds on GFANZ’s work by covering aspects of nature transition plans beyond climate and addressing the needs of both financial institutions and corporates. Mary Schapiro, GFANZ Vice Chair, said: “GFANZ welcomes the TNFD report that builds on their guidance for nature disclosure and accounts for the goals of The Biodiversity Plan. Transparent data is critical for accurately and effectively taking action to protect biodiversity, and clear, consistent disclosure is the first step to accessing that data. TNFD’s report complements the work of GFANZ to incorporate nature into transition planning, and we look forward to continuing to support their efforts to help the private sector account for their impact on nature.” Hans Mehn, Partner at Generation Investment Management, noted: “We welcome TNFD’s guidance on nature transition planning alongside the GFANZ guidance on Nature in Net Zero Transition Planning (NZTP), which has also been released today. We feel that the reports are complementary and will be excellent strategic resources for investors and the private sector. Investors have many reasons for taking action on nature to manage risks and opportunities in their portfolios, including: net zero commitments, adoption of TNFD recommendations, emerging legislation and requirements under disclosure standards, like IFRS/ISSB. The TNFD and GFANZ frameworks highlight the strategic intersection of climate and nature transition planning, and the consultation period provides an excellent opportunity for organisations of all types to engage.” Aaron Vermeulen, Practice Leader Finance, WWF International, commented: “Delivering the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) demands a fundamental change in how businesses and financial institutions operate. Achieving ambitious and challenging science-based goals, such as bending the curve of biodiversity loss, requires breaking down the process of systemic change into smaller, achievable steps. Nature transition planning unlocks this and disclosure of such plans provides investors with the essential information necessary to finance the transition. Over the past few years, WWF has been actively promoting transition planning. We are thrilled to see the first comprehensive guidance and disclosure recommendations released today by the TNFD, which we believe will be instrumental in mainstreaming this crucial concept.” Carine Smith Ihenacho, Chief Governance and Compliance Officer at Norges Bank Investment Management, said: “An increasing loss of nature will affect companies’ ability to operate in the long term. It is therefore important that our portfolio companies integrate material nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities into their transition plans.” The TNFD welcomes feedback on the approach outlined in this discussion paper by 1 February 2025 from corporates, financial institutions and other interested stakeholders. To provide feedback, email [email protected]. Based on the feedback received through the consultation, and insights gained through potential pilot testing, the Taskforce will develop final TNFD guidance on nature transition plans that will be published in 2025. The TNFD encourages businesses and financial institutions to pilot test the draft guidance set out in this discussion paper. 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 500 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, [email protected] [email protected]