The need for businesses to understand climate-related risk and opportunity is critical to their survival. Although not currently mandatory in every geography or jurisdiction, climate-related financial disclosure is central to maintaining license to operate and increasingly becoming obligatory across the world. It is also essential to strategy, planning, and competitiveness.

For many this is driving a shift from promise to action faster than anticipated. To support organizations with this shift, the SustainAbility Institute by ERM has released a new report which details how businesses can approach and bolster their disclosure journey.

This disclosure journey is guided by bodies such as the prominent Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) which was established to develop recommendations for more effective climate-related disclosures that could promote more informed investment, credit, and insurance underwriting decisions. Since its release in 2017, some 2,085 companies representing a market capitalization of over $22.4 trillion are now TCFD supporters. Whilst many have begun to implement its recommendations, most have yet to do so comprehensively and can still move towards further disclosure and action.

ERM worked with the TCFD Secretariat in 2016 to help the TCFD develop its recommendations for forward-looking disclosures. Specifically, ERM contributed practical approaches that organizations can use when considering the implications of a range of different potential future scenarios. Since then, ERM has supported many businesses to understand and report against it, for example, our work with a top Eurozone bank mentioned in our 2020 sustainability report.

This report details:

  • The fast-moving climate-related disclosure agenda and the forces driving the surge in demand.
  • The corporate response, with best practice examples of the cutting edge.
  • How to decode disclosure, discussing how companies should approach climate disclosure and the key obstacles they might face.