Dive Brief:
- The Rockefeller Foundation is investing $500,000 in the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures’ efforts to establish market practices for corporate reporting of nature-related risks, the nonprofit announced last week.
- The funding will come in the form of a multi-year grant, according to the Jan. 22 announcement. TNFD announced the next day it had finalized sector guidance for disclosures for the apparel, textiles and footwear; beverages; construction materials; and engineering, construction and real estate industries.
- More than 500 organizations with more than $17 trillion in assets under management have adopted TNFD’s standards, according to the Jan. 23 standards announcement. Packaging companies like Crown Holdings, International Paper, Smurfit Kappa and Stora Enso were among the first 320 organizations tabbed as early adopters.
Dive Insight:
The Rockefeller Foundation announced the grant at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, as part of the nonprofit’s broader focus on increasing the accountability and integrity of climate and nature-based resources. With the standards TNFD released last week, it now has final guidance for nature-related disclosures for 13 industries.
Last year, the World Economic Forum listed biodiversity loss as the third largest global risk the world will face in the next decade. Maria Kozloski, Rockefeller Foundation’s senior vice president of innovative finance, said in a release that the foundation is “excited” to support TNFD’s work “advancing a globally coordinated framework on nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities.”
“Because nature-related risks and opportunities affect most of the global economy, it is critical to incorporate natural capital considerations into decision making across the private and public sectors,” Kozloski said.
TNFD is modeled off the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, which created a framework for corporate climate-related disclosures. TCFD’s standards were incorporated into the work of the International Sustainability Standards Board and later disbanded.
TNFD Co-Chair David Craig said in the funding announcement that the task force’s work “underscores a fundamental shift toward recognizing nature as essential to the health and resilience of our economies, communities and ecosystems.”
“With financial support from key partners like The Rockefeller Foundation, we are helping businesses and financial institutions account for and safeguard natural capital, advancing a global transition to resilient, nature-positive systems that benefit communities and businesses alike,” Craig said.
TNFD also released draft guidance for the fishing, marine transportation and cruise lines and water utilities and services sectors last week. The organization is seeking public feedback on the drafts until April 4, before releasing final guidance for those sectors in June, TNFD said.
TNFD is fully funded by governments and philanthropic organizations and does not accept private sector contributions, including from members of the task force. Last year it announced an undisclosed amount of funding from Japan’s government and the renewal of a $500,000 multi-year grant from another philanthropy group, the Australia-based Macdoch Foundation.
TNFD is not the only organization working on corporate biodiversity and nature-related disclosures. ISSB announced last year it would work on a biodiversity research project as part of its work plan for 2024-26. The board said that work will look to build off the foundation TNFD has laid. The Global Reporting Initiative, another corporate sustainability standard-setter, also updated its own biodiversity disclosure standards last year.
The World Economic Forum has warned that half of the global economy is facing threats of biodiversity loss. Additionally, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services said in its latest assessment that biodiversity is actively declining in every region.
