This webinar, hosted by CDSB, provides an overview of why including climate change related-risks in financial disclosures is becoming more mainstream, and what this might mean for the accounting profession.
The French Association of Private Enterprises (AFEP) asked the think tank The Shift Project to conduct an analysis of stakeholders in climate risk assessment, their choice of methodologies and key market trends. The aim was to help companies to more clearly understand the environment in which they were developing in terms of climate risk analysis.
This document explains the main lessons learned from the study, which includes:
1. Traditionally considered within the broader framework of environmental, social and governance (ESG) analysis, the climate component is increasingly being singled out in the work of risk analysis and ratings officers. It is expected to continue being singularised in this way owing to its fundamentally systemic, irreversible, global and very-long term dimension;
2. Despite marked progress, the scope of the “climate rating” remains limited. The climate risk is only slowly and partially being integrated into the mainstream analyses and studies of major financial ratings agencies. The utilisation of analyses conducted by non-financial ratings agencies focuses on assets for which there is specific demand from a small minority of end-investors (green bonds, SRI funds, “low carbon” indices).
3. The climate rating sector, like the ESG sector as a whole, lacks resources, resulting in (i) slower integration of the systemic risks related to climate change; (ii) less R&D in that field; (iii) the promotion of oversimplified or automated analysis; (iv) potential governance problems that damage confidence among stakeholders.
4. Analysing the risks and opportunities related to “low carbon” strategies depends on the development of expertise and the mobilisation of human resources and investment, which are currently inadequate. In addition to evaluating direct or indirect greenhouse gas emissions, analysis methodologies must increasingly take into account how dynamic and forward-looking deployed strategies are.
5. There is a temptation to implement oversimplified methodologies for the assessment of investment portfolios in the financial sector. The use of such static, reductive and methodologically fragile analyses should constitute only a single step in the actual integration of the climate risk by markets.
6. While the climate issue is destined to become ever more central, in France remarkable consensus is emerging in political and economic spheres on the gravity of the matter, which could give rise to a long-term national ambition. In addition to largely decarbonised power generation and proactive legislation, France has a number of assets to help it overcome the climate challenge and become a leader of the low-carbon economy of the future in Europe and internationally.
This webinar explored the issue of materiality in climate-related disclosures, following from the release of a new discussion paper (Materiality and climate-related financial disclosures - CDSB).
This framework focuses principally on the non-physical risks to carbon assets, such as policy, market, and technology risks, associated with carbon and climate change.
Author: International Integrated Reporting Council
Industry Group: All Industry Groups
Research / Insights - 2018
This database contains examples of emerging practice in Integrated Reporting that illustrate how organizations are currently reporting concise information about how their strategy, governance, performance and prospects, in the context of their external environment, leading to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term.
Author: 2° Investing Initiative, UNEP FI, World Resources Institute
Industry Group: All Industry Groups
Guidance / Tool - 2018
This report reviews the strategies and metrics available to investors seeking to measure and improve the climate friendliness of their portfolios, defined as the intent to reduce GHG emissions and aid the transition to a low-carbon economy through investment activities.
This blog considers how the TCFD recommendations can support sustainability experts to elevate the impact of climate volatility onto their Board's agenda.
This document provides guidance on how asset owners can address the coal mining sector in order to align investment portfolios with the Paris Agreement.
This piece of research outlines the key challenges for banks in assessing and disclosing climate change risk as based on initial stages of the UNEP FI project supported by Mercer and Oliver Wyman. The TCFD recommendations are aimed to assess the impact of climate change on bank performance, however, many will face challenges in implementing the recommendations.
This report tracks the progress of RE100 member companies working towards their 100% goals, provides key annual findings of RE100, and gives insights into some of the most critical issues around the role of businesses in future energy markets.
This tool is FTSE Russell's Green Revenues data model, which helps investors understand the global industrial transition to a green and low carbon economy with consistent, transparent data and indexes. This tool has been listed as an example of a climate-related opportunity in the TCFD Final Report Annex.
Author: World Economic Forum, Marsh & McLennan Companies
Industry Group: All Industry Groups
Research / Insights - 2018
This paper highlights the extraordinary pace and variety of change in the world, and the resulting fractures in global cooperation. For businesses, the report raises critical questions about building resilience and adaptability in the face of these seemingly unmanageable risks.