Primary Functions
- Find practical guidance on fulfilling the TCFD recommendations for corporate disclosures of climate-related information that supports informed decision-making and capital allocation.
Detailed Description
In June 2017, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) issued its final recommendations for producing consistent, comparable, clear, and reliable corporate disclosures of climate-related information that would support informed decision-making and capital allocation by investors, lenders, and insurance underwriters. More than a year and a half later, although more than 617 organizations have publicly expressed support for the TCFD, far fewer appear to have used the recommendations to guide their climate-related disclosures.
In explaining this implementation gap, market participants have cited a need for practical guidance for companies to use in attempting to fulfill the principles-based recommendations and make the 11 recommended disclosures in their mainstream reports. The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), two well-established organizations with rigorously developed TCFD-aligned reporting tools, are uniquely positioned to provide this guidance.
This paper is the first in a series of practical, TCFD-focused resources CDSB and SASB intend to develop and make available in the coming months and years, as climate-related tools and reporting practices continue to mature.
By offering how-to guidance, this publication aims to help companies enhance the robustness, consistency, comparability, and utility of TCFD implementation and reporting through SASB and CDSB’s market-tested frameworks, standards and resources.
The guidance adheres to the following structure:
- Overview: An overview of the TCFD, SASB, and CDSB, and the drive for effective corporate climate-related disclosures;
- Getting Started: Key action steps to help companies lay the groundwork for effective climate-related disclosures;
- Good Practice Disclosure: Sample disclosures and accompanying discussion to provide companies with a practical understanding of the four core elements of the TCFD recommendations and their specific disclosures; and
- Looking Ahead: A summary of how the CDSB Framework and SASB standards represent a clear solution to TCFD implementation, and areas of future focus.
