The UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has applauded the launch of eagerly anticipated recommendations to help businesses and financial institutions around the world both assess and report on their relationship with nature.

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ (TNFD) finalised disclosure framework is the product of two years of development, consultation and piloting by hundreds of businesses and financial institutions, supported by expert scientific and standard-setting organisations, including UNEP-WCMC. 

The TNFD framework sets out a detailed – but voluntary – process to help private sector and finance organisations review and report on nature-related risks and opportunities and integrate findings into business and financial planning.

UNEP-WCMC advises TNFD as a knowledge partner and has helped input into the development of the new reporting framework, in parallel with the ongoing development of our suite of powerful tools and guidance that help businesses understand and assess nature-related issues.

We are extremely proud to have worked with TNFD on the framework and look forward to continuing to advise the Taskforce with its further development and additional guidance materials.

TNFD’s effort driving momentum and collaboration on nature-related disclosure by business and the financial sector is a tremendous achievement. Its work to consolidate sustainability best practice with vital emerging science on nature-related assessment and metrics has the potential to change how businesses understand and act on their dependencies and impacts on nature.

We now need to see businesses and financial institutions adopt the recommendations in full and without delay, recognising risks to both society and business across their entire value chains.

UNEP-WCMC Director Neville Ash

The launch of the framework comes as private sector interest in nature-related risks and opportunities continues to grow, along with policy momentum on nature and climate reporting. This includes the EU’s new Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation and Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, mandatory climate-related disclosure in several countries and, not least, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and related package of decisions, which highlights the crucial role of business in conservation and explicitly requires nations to foster enabling environments for businesses to assess, disclose and then act on nature-related issues.

While it is not mandatory for organisations to report or use the TNFD recommendations, it is expected that the framework will be integrated into country disclosure requirements in due course. Reporting organisations must outline the scope and geographical location of disclosed data, the links between their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, how their nature-related criteria link with other sustainability disclosures and what stakeholder engagement has informed assessment.

Businesses in all parts of the world have both an opportunity and duty to help lead the economic transformation to the nature-positive, net-zero future that all people and the health of our planet depend upon. To do that, businesses and financiers must understand all their significant nature-related impacts and dependencies, and then act on them in a socially-just manner.

While disclosure is not an end in itself, the reporting process can and will be a crucial mechanism to drive operational transparency and accountability and nature-positive action by business.

UNEP-WCMC Director Neville Ash

UNEP-WCMC’s science, policy and business sustainability experts work across numerous projects committed to helping the private sector understand and act on nature’s importance to economies and economic development.

As part of our ongoing input into the TNFD framework creation, we advised how disclosing companies can leverage our methodologies and tools, including the emerging Ecosystem Integrity Index, recent Nature Risk Profile methodology, the Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure (ENCORE) tool, the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool and the Land Use Finance Hub Positive Impact Indicators Directory.

In addition to our suite of tools and guidance for businesses, and our engagement with various international business and finance sustainability initiatives, we also act as co-host of the Technical Support Unit for the forthcoming Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ global assessment on the relationship between business and biodiversity, expected in 2025.

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