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.

Consortium provides prototype climate-related financial disclosure standards, following earlier pledge to collaborate.

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

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 pledging to collaborate to provide market guidance on sustainability standards.

The Guide aims to improve climate-related risk disclosure in organizations’ mainstream reports.

By Paul A. Davies and Kristina S. Wyatt

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) have issued a Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Implementation Guide designed to foster improved reporting of climate-related information. The TCFD has enjoyed widespread support since its formation in 2015, yet relatively few organizations are applying the TCFD’s reporting guidance to address climate impacts in their disclosure documents.[i] The new Implementation Guide is designed as a “how to” manual to remedy this disclosure gap. The Guide aims to help companies to enhance the robustness, consistency, and utility of their climate disclosures by applying the disclosure guidance offered by the SASB and CDSB within the TCFD framework. This application of the TCFD, CDSB, and SASB standards should help companies to craft disclosures in harmony with the TCFD’s principles-based framework and the disclosure principles offered by the CDSB and SASB.