The Corporate Reporting Dialogue (CRD) report, Driving Alignment in Climate-related Reporting found high levels of alignment between frameworks on the basis of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.
The report was launched during Climate Week NYC at the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit in response to the urgent need to resolve the barriers to effective climate reporting.
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) collaborated as part of the Dialogue’s Better Alignment Project to access alignment on the TCFS’s disclosure principles, recommended disclosures and illustrative example metrics.
The publication discusses the Better Alignment Project participants’ standards and frames against the seven principles for effective disclosure, the 11 recommended disclosures and 50 illustrative example metrics detailed in the TCFD recommendations, as well as the similarities and differences between the Dialogue participants within the parameters of the TCFD recommendations’ example metrics.
According to the report, the TCFD’s seven principles for effective disclosures compliment those of the participants’ frameworks and standards, with mapping showing no sources of conflict.
The TCFD’s 11 recommended disclosures are well aligned with the participants. Overall 80% of the TCFD’s 50 illustrative metrics are fully or reasonably covered by CDP, GRI, and SASB indicators.
Additionally, the CDP, GRI and SASB show high levels of alignment for the TCFD’s illustrative example metrics, with 70% of the TCFD’s 50 metrics showing no substantive difference between the participants’ indicators.
Substantive differences are limited for the remaining 15 indicators.
CRD chair Ian Mackintosh said: ?“This report is the first deliverable of the Better Alignment Project and I am delighted with the results presented. The actual alignment of the frameworks against the TCFD recommendations and between the frameworks is much higher than may have been envisaged prior to the start of the project.
“The connections and cooperation between the operational teams of the framework organizations have developed significantly. This has not only led to a much deeper understanding of each other’s frameworks, but also has proven to be a strong basis for future work.
“Relationships with critical senior stakeholders have also intensified. To me, it means that the Better Alignment Project has set the ground for a long-lasting change in the reporting landscape.”
