HM Treasury published the interim report of the Government–Regulator TCFD Taskforce, set up to examine the most effective way to approach climate-related financial disclosures, including exploring the appropriateness of mandatory reporting. The report sets out an indicative path to mandatory climate-related financial disclosures across the UK economy.
In June 2017 the Financial Stability Board’s Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) published a set of recommendations to support complete and comparable disclosures that will be useful in decision-making.
The UK Government was one of the first to endorse the TCFD’s recommendations. In its 2019 Green Finance Strategy, the Government set an expectation that all listed issuers and large asset owners would be disclosing in line with the TCFD’s recommendations by 2022. A Government–Regulator TCFD Taskforce (the taskforce), of which the Bank of England is a member, was established to consider how this expectation could be met.
The taskforce has developed a roadmap which, sets out an indicative path towards comprehensive and high-quality climate-related disclosure across the UK economy. The implementation path presented in the roadmap builds on initial steps already taken.
Given the urgency of the climate threat, we have highlighted the need to assess, manage, and deepen our collective understanding of the financial risks from climate change. A voluntary approach to climate-related financial disclosure may not be sufficient. Instead, the taskforce advocates a move towards mandatory TCFD-aligned disclosures across non-financial and financial sectors of the UK economy.
A coordinated approach across the economy will help ensure that the right information on climate-related financial risks and opportunities is available across the investment chain – from companies in the real economy, to financial services firms, to end-investors.
The ambitious but proportionate strategy presented in the roadmap seeks to improve the quality, consistency and availability of information on climate-related financial risks and opportunities across the UK economy.
What the report covers:
- The case for mandatory TCFD-aligned disclosure.
- A roadmap towards mandatory climate-related disclosure, covering seven key sectors: listed commercial companies; UK registered large private companies; banks and building societies; insurance companies; life insurers; FCA-regulated pension schemes; and occupational pension schemes.
- Next steps, including: progression of strategies outlined in the roadmap; working with industry to facilitate implementation; and co-ordinating with international organisations to further global work on climate-related disclosures.
- Annexes provide an overview of proposals for each of the seven sectors within scope.
A separate roadmap document has been produced to summarise the proposed path towards mandatory climate disclosures.
