More than 300 companies to start reporting impact on nature

Tue, January 16, 2024 

High-rise apartment buildings and high-rise office buildings are seen at dusk in Tokyo

By Simon Jessop

LONDON (Reuters) - More than 300 companies and financial institutions plan to report on the impacts they have on the natural world as part of efforts to stem the global collapse of biodiversity, delegates at Davos heard on Tuesday.

The disclosures, created by the G20-backed Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, will see the groups share much more information around the risks and opportunities posed by their interaction with the natural world.

By doing so, boards will hopefully make decisions that have a more positive impact on nature - helping meet a global agreement by countries at the COP15 talks on biodiversity in 2022 - and be rewarded by investors and capital markets.

"This is a milestone moment for Nature finance and for corporate reporting," said David Craig, Co-Chair of the TNFD and former founder and CEO of Refinitiv, in a statement.

"This is a clear signal that investors, lenders, insurers and companies are recognising that their business models and portfolios are highly dependent on both nature and climate and need to be treated as both strategic risks and investment opportunities."

After beginning a two-year work programme in 2021, the TNFD's 14 recommended disclosures were published in September 2023 after more than 250 institutions piloted them during the development process.

Framed around four pillars - Governance, Strategy, Risk and Impact Measurement, and Metrics and Targets - the disclosures will force companies to describe how they assess and manage related issues and how they plan to improve their performance.

Among the companies and financial organisations to commit to disclose, beginning in either 2023, 2024 or 2025, were Norges Bank Investment Management, the largest owner of listed companies globally.

"We are committed to leveraging this tool to deepen our understanding of our portfolio's nature-related impacts and dependencies, further reinforcing our responsible investment efforts in this important area," said Carine Smith Ihenacho, NBIM's Chief Governance and Compliance Officer.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Alex Richardson)