We recognise that there are business risks associated with climate change due to the physical risks associated with it. Land use, development and construction for example can be severely impacted by flooding and storm damages, supply chain interruptions, rising sea levels in coastal areas and overheating of homes due to temperature increase. These physical risks can subsequently impact current and future regulations, technology and product markets, customer expectations and confidence and can result in market share loss and reputational damage.
10 years ago we started our disclosure journey by submitting our annual response to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Climate Change questionnaire, a global environmental disclosure system supporting thousands of companies, cities, states and regions to measure and manage their risks and opportunities relating to climate change.
In addition to our CDP disclosure, for the first time this year we have aligned our annual climate-related disclosures with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The TCFD was established in 2017 by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to develop recommendations for more effective climate-related disclosures. In its work, the Task Force drew on member expertise, significant stakeholder engagement, and existing climate-related disclosure regimes to develop a singular, accessible framework for climate-related financial disclosure.
The recommendations are structured around four thematic areas that represent core elements of how organizations operate: Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, Metrics and Targets. Each thematic area consists of recommended disclosures and our full disclosure can be viewed here.
The potential benefits associated with implementing the Task Force’s recommendations include the increased investors’ and lenders’ confidence that the company’s climate-related risks are appropriately assessed and managed and the increased awareness and understanding of climate-related risks and opportunities within the company, resulting in better risk management and more informed strategic planning. Our TCFD journey has just started and we aim to continue and expand our climate-related disclosures through our Annual Report and global disclosure systems such as CDP.
