Posted by Dan Crewe

Watch our short webinars about the TCFD

You might be considering TCFD for your own business. We support organisations with all stages of aligning with the TCFD recommendations and have created a mini series of TCFD webinars, perfect if you want to know more about TCFD (or one specific area) but you have limited time.

Mini series 1. Overview of TCFD, market and policy context.

The Taskforce for climate related financial disclosures (TCFD) is an industry-led initiative of G20’s financial stability board for businesses to produce useful information for investors and lenders to effectively price climate risk and opportunity.

In webinar one, we provide an overview of the framework along with details on the 11 recommended disclosures which fall within the four pillars of:

  1. Governance
  2. Strategy
  3. Risk management
  4. Metrics and targets

The number of disclosures are increasing. We describe what companies are doing in regards to formatting trends and the other voluntary standards that are aligned with TCFD. We also discuss the rules regarding what companies must include in their annual financial report and how these rules are evolving.

Watch webinar 1: TCFD overview

Mini series 2. Business impact analysis.

Most companies demonstrate leadership through their strategy disclosure. It is a topic which comes up frequently in our TCFD conversations with clients, so we have produced this webinar to explain it. It is a less procedural pillar than some of the others, but significant because of its focus on risk exposure.

In this webinar we talk through a typical risk and opportunity analysis matrix explaining considerations for your business such as stakeholder involvement, materiality threshold and GHG emissions pricing. From our case study example you will get an understanding of what you can expect to disclose.

Scenario analysis is used to consider the potential financial impact across a range of possible futures, focussing on the medium to long-term timeframes. We talk you through TCFD’s recommended process:

  1. Ensure governance is in place
  2. Assess materiality
  3. Identify scenarios
  4. Evaluate impacts
  5. Identify responses
  6. Document and disclosure.

We use a case study examples to illustrate how this might look in your report and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches that might be used.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) have conducted a review of TCFD disclosures by UK based, listed businesses. We discuss their findings- that there were not enough businesses providing quantified outcomes and that discussions were ‘unduly’ focussed on the opportunities, painting things in a more positive light than reality. There was also reported to be a lack of detail about the specific company or how outcomes had informed financial planning.

Watch webinar 2: Business impact analysis

Mini series 3: Transition plans.

Transition plans are an aspect of the overall business strategy which outline targets and actions. They are covered under the TCFD strategy b) and the UN Race To Zero criteria. The UK Sustainability Disclosure Requirements SDR also include specific requirements for transition plans.

In webinar 3 we review what these look like, highlighting that there is little consistency and this is likely to change with standardised guidance.

The Transition Plan Taskforce are working on providing clear guidance for U.K reporters and currently give three principles:

  1. Align with economy-wide net zero transition.
  2. Focus on concrete actions in the near-term which are backed up with clear governance mechanisms.
  3. Enable periodic reporting and verification.

Watch webinar 3: Transition plans

Our recommendations for what to do with regards to TCFD:

  • Look ahead and have a view of future requirements. This is a fast evolving area. The US and Canada are looking at making this mandatory and in the UK, transition plans are likely to become the next step requirement for larger companies. There are also other voluntary reporting schemes and organisations which are going to be very influential such as Taskforce for nature related financial disclosure.
  • Look around- what are competitors doing and saying.
  • Fix the roof while the sun is shining- make sure your internal processes are up to date and working well, particularly in relation to scope 3. Consider what you will need to disclose and have internal conversations about this.

Register to watch the webinars on-demand

How we help:

We have a number of services which help clients with TCFD reporting, whether it is an initial gap analysis to see how aligned your current disclosures are to TCFD criteria, implementation planning with key stakeholders in your business or any form of support with submitting your disclosure.