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With over four years of TCFD reporting now behind us, common practices of TCFD reporting are emerging. Some of these are fit for purpose, others are failing to provide investors with useful information, and in some cases may miss the goal entirely. In this panel discussion, speakers explored where TCFD reporting has gone wrong, and what companies can do to fix it.

This panel discussion was convened on 1st July 2021 by the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), and included the following speakers:

• Mardi McBrien, Managing Director, Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB)
• Meryam Omi, Head of Sustainability and Responsible Investment Strategy, Legal & General Investment Management
• Louie Woodall, Editor, Climate Risk Review
• Maria Petzsch, Lawyer (Climate Programme), ClientEarth
• Lois Guthrie, Director, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

After a brief introduction to the topic and how it relates to other guidance from the SSE in Part I, Part II of this guidance document, herein referred to as the “Model Guidance on Climate Disclosure”, provides a template that exchanges can use to develop issueroriented guidance for their markets on climate-related disclosure. The template is structured around the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) Task Force for Climate-Related Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations, the current best practice for climate-related disclosure.

This third EY Global Climate Risk Disclosure Barometer provides a global snapshot of the increasing corporate focus on climate risks and opportunities as pressure from all stakeholders moves them up the boardroom and executive agenda.

The research draws on public disclosures of companies on the uptake of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) across highly impacted sectors. The disclosures of more than 1,100 companies across 42 jurisdictions were included in the assessment, broadening the size and geographical scope of the sample from the 2019 research.

The high number of guidelines about what ESG information is required or recommended to be disclosed means companies face barriers and strained resource capacities to focus on quality ESG disclosures. This report looks at various initiatives and the future of sustainability reporting.

A new legal Primer produced jointly by the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative and the Climate Governance Initiative (CGI), examines the fast-changing landscape of climate risks and opportunities for business, and the implications for board directors’ legal obligations. The Primer on Climate Change: Directors’ Duties and Disclosure Obligations, which examines 20 countries and the European Union, is the first-ever legal primer that takes a cross-jurisdictional view across such a broad sample of major civil law and common law systems. The Primer shines a spotlight on a set of core universal principles, as well as notable variations in breadth and stringency between the leading jurisdictions and the broader group.

This practical example shows how GSK is using the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to understand and communicate how climate change could affect its business. GSK has set up a Finance Sustainability Champion Network to support their goal of achieving net zero impact on climate by 2030 – applying the TCFD framework is a key part of this.

GSK’s work has included:

– Making the business case for climate-related disclosures
– Conducting scenario analysis
– Developing data-driven metrics and targets
– Preparing the disclosures by working collaboratively
– Applying climate-related financial risks to business planning and decision making

This case study is part of A4S’s guidance on supporting and implementing the TCFD recommendations.

Regulators in Canada and elsewhere are considering regulatory changes to accelerate the transition towards net-zero carbon emissions. Part of that consideration is whether to adopt the TCFD four pillar framework of governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. We can learn from regulators that have already adopted measures, in particular, the recent activities of the United Kingdom (UK) Government. The UK Government is committed to mandatory climaterelated TCFD-aligned disclosures across the UK economy over a five-year period, including: listed commercial companies, UK-registered companies, banks and building societies, insurance companies, asset managers, and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)-regulated pension schemes.

This briefing note, current to May 2021, highlights the policy rationales for moving to mandatory TCFD-aligned disclosure, sets out the paths the UK Government is taking to make disclosure mandatory across the economy, and raises important considerationsfor regulators in Canada and elsewhere.

This paper seeks to highlight the specific climate-related information, in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations, that investors consider to be useful when it comes to their own decision-making process. This in turn should guide preparers in the areas that should be focussed and the existing resources available to support them.

The Net-Zero Banking Alliance commitment is underpinned by the bank-led UNEP FI Guidelines for Climate Target Setting for Banks . These guidelines have been developed by signatories of the commitment, a leadership group under the UNEP FI Principles for Responsible Banking. The guidelines outline four principles for target-setting:

1) Banks shall set and publicly disclose long-term and intermediate targets to support meeting the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.

2) Banks shall establish an emissions baseline and annually measure and report the emissions profile of their lending portfolios and investment activities.

3) Banks shall use widely accepted science-based decarbonisation scenarios to set both long-term and intermediate targets that are aligned with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement.

4) Banks shall regularly review targets to ensure consistency with current climate science.

Companies are increasingly supporting the TCFD as a leading disclosure framework but reporting is merely the outcome of internal efforts to measure and manage climate-related risk. How should climate scenario analysis be implemented by companies and how can they act on the results? This session explores net-zero targets and what constitutes a strong target according to three dimensions: relevance, ambition, and confidence level.

This report is based on a detailed assessment of individual banks’ disclosures by our BCS Consulting. The ambition in undertaking this research is to create further transparency across the industry and objectively establish the progress that is being made towards a low-carbon economy. Furthermore, the report highlights the key areas where more work is still to be done and includes a view on how to approach this

This report is the second update on progress, issued by the Climate Action 100+ initiative. It summarises overall progress of the initiative including an update on measurement and benchmarking, key focus company commitments against the initiative’s goals, growth in signatories, and a sector level update on company performance against a set of indicators aligned to the aims of the initiative.