UN-backed TNFD launched

Today sees the launch of the UN-supported Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures.

The initiative aims to create a framework for business and financial institutions to assess their emerging nature-related risks and opportunities. The Taskforce commits to delivering a framework by 2023 for organisations to report and act on evolving nature-related risks, to support a shift in global financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and toward nature-positive outcomes.

In its first year, the TNFD aims to build upon the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which has become instrumental in mainstreaming the issue of climate-related financial risks. The TNFD’s framework for nature-related risks will complement the TCFD’s climate-related framework, to give companies and financial institutions a complete picture of their environmental risks. Through its framework, the TNFD will support organisations to report and act on both their nature-related risks. The framework will be tested and refined in 2022 before its launch and dissemination in 2023.

Two Co-Chairs of the TNFD have been announced: David Craig, CEO of Refinitiv and Group Leader of Data & Analytics Division at London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), and Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The Taskforce will consist of approximately 30 members, with an equal representation of financial institutions, corporates and data/service providers from developed and emerging markets. It will be informed by a diverse Stakeholder Group.