Disclosure and transparency to scale up sustainable investment

About this webinar

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) launched the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) in December 2015. Chaired by Michael Bloomberg and supported by the G20 countries to disclose climate-related information to investors to facilitate sustainable investment decisions. The TCFD is composed of 32 members (banks, insurance companies, asset managers, pension funds, accounting and consulting firms, credit rating agencies, and other nonfinancial companies) to prepare the recommendations, which cover 4 core areas – governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets.

More than 100 businesses including Bank of America, Barclays, HSBC, ING, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) also officially expressed their support for the final recommendations to be adopted widely and on 19 September, 10 companies became the first to commit to implementing the recommendations within the next three years. The 10 companies  committed are Enagás; Aviva plc; Philips Lighting; Royal DSM; Ferrovial; Wipro Ltd; Iberdrola; Marks & Spencer; Sopra Steria Group; and WPP.

With governments and businesses around the world committed to tackle climate change issues and make the transition to a low carbon economy, it is crucial to scale-up investment in climate mitigation and adaptation. Many investors already have sustainable investment strategies in place, but there remains a huge communication gap between investors and businesses. In order to encourage the shift to mainstreaming environmental considerations, a standardised and comprehensive set of data needs to be available for investors to improve their decision-making processes. Climate change brings to investors both risks and opportunities that they need to take into account, which is why businesses need to disclose better on those issues to inform investment decisions.

A number of initiatives and guidelines on environmental disclosures already exist throughout the world, some of which are more widely used, such as CDP, GRI, SASB, IFRS. Harmonisation of the data made available to investors is highly needed, in order for investors to be able to compare companies or projects they are looking to invest in. The data also needs to be comprehensive and fit certain financial disclosure criteria for an appropriate analysis and better-informed investment decisions.

This "transparency to scale up sustainable investment" webinar will be held on Tuesday 30 January 2018 at 3pm GMT, ahead of the inaugural Sustainable Investment Forum Europe on 13 March 2018 in Paris. The webinar will unite influential representatives from the investment community, policymakers and think tanks to discuss the next step of environmental disclosure.

Featured Speaker: Wim Van den Hyfte, Global Head of Responsible Investments and Research, Candriam Investors Group 

Discussion points:
• Why are the TCFD recommendations important and what is the uptake, 6 months after their publications?
• How can businesses be further guided when they start disclosing environmental information about their activities?
• What are the key requirements for good climate-related financial disclosure?
• What is the role of policy and regulation in the uptake of globalised environmental disclosure?