The FCA is consulting on extending its rules to standard listed issuers.
By Paul A. Davies, Chris Horton, James Inness, Anna Ngo, and Charlotte Collins
On 22 June 2021, the FCA published a Consultation Paper (CP21/18) on extending the application of the existing climate-related disclosure requirements for commercial companies with a UK premium listing to a wider scope of listed issuers, so that all commercial companies that issue listed equity shares would be captured by the requirements. The FCA had previously announced that it was going to consult on this extension, so standard listed issuers were forewarned. The FCA plans to apply the requirements for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2022.
A group of leading sustainability and integrated reporting organisations has published a paper addressing standards for reporting on enterprise value and presenting prototypes of climate-related financial disclosure standards (the Paper). The co-authors include the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the Climate Disclosure Standard Board (CDSB), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) (the Organisations). The Organisations released the paper on 18 December 2020, several months after 
On 9 November 2020, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced several initiatives designed to help the UK tackle climate change, while maintaining its position as an “open, attractive international financial centre” after the Brexit transition period ends.
On 6 March 2020, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a consultation primarily focused on enhancing requirements on certain listed companies to make climate-related disclosures (the Consultation). In particular, it is proposed under the Consultation that such listed companies will be required to state that they have reported in line with the recommendations made by the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) or explain why they have not complied with such step. This demonstrates further momentum behind the increasingly widespread adoption of the TCFD recommendations in the public markets (as well as the private markets).