The Financial Stability Board-sponsored Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure issued an update today to its 2017 recommendations of disclosure of climate-related financial information. Along with a status report to the FSB, TCFD published guidance to support preparers in disclosing decision-useful information and linking those disclosures with estimates of financial impacts, as well as an update to the implementation guidance on its recommendations.
Among the key new points of guidance are the disclosure of various greenhouse gas emissions, guidance on reporting emissions that are related to bank financing activities, and the extent to which bank financing activities are aligned with a “well below 2 degrees Celsius” scenario in global warming. With interest in climate risk disclosures growing dramatically over the past few years and the Securities and Exchange Commission currently considering a proposal to possibly require specific climate risk disclosures, the TCFD framework is often referred to by investors and governmental bodies as the benchmark disclosure guidance. American Bankers Association staff will be working with the ABA Climate Task Force in assessing the impact of such recommendations.
FSB established the TCFD six years ago to develop a set of voluntary, consistent disclosure recommendations for companies to provide information to investors, lenders and insurance underwriters about their climate-related financial risks.
