The Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has revealed it has public support from 237 companies with a combined market capitalisation of over $6.3 trillion, which includes 150 financial firms responsible for assets of over $81.7 trillion. The TCFD announced the growing support at the One Planet Summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, which marked the two year anniversary of the Paris Agreement.

The TCFD, which was established by the Financial Stability Board and is chaired by Michael Bloomberg, said that the number of companies and organisations which have supported the initiative has more than doubled in the five months since the publication of its voluntary recommendations on climate-related information that companies should disclose to help investors, lenders and others make sound financial decisions.

Supporting companies represent a broad range of industries, the TCFD said, including construction, consumer goods, energy, metals & mining and transport. The supporting firms also have a global spread, the TCFD indicated with the companies being headquartered in 29 countries.  In addition, national governments, over a dozen accounting organisations, and the largest proxy advisory firms have expressed support for the TCFD recommendations, the TCFD said.

The TCFD said that there was increasing demand for transparency on climate-related risks and opportunities from investors, and the Task Force’s recommendations provided a framework for companies to respond. Companies’ adoption of the TCFD recommendations was an important step forward in helping financial markets price climate-related risks and opportunities correctly and ensuring a smooth transition to a low-carbon economy, which is fundamental to delivering on the Paris Agreement.

Michael R. Bloomberg, chair of the Task Force said: "Climate change poses both economic risks and opportunities. But right now, companies don’t have the data they need to accurately measure the risks and evaluate the opportunities. That prevents them from taking protective measures and identifying sustainable investments that could have strong returns. The Task Force’s recommendations will help change that by empowering companies to measure and report risks in a more standardized way. The response from businesses and investors around the world has been incredibly positive, and we hope many others will join the initiative."

FSB Chair Mark Carney said: "Over the coming year, issuers will begin to deploy the TCFD framework and through collaboration and engagement with the providers of capital, will together start to release more efficient and decision-useful disclosures. By this time next year, and in time for the Argentine G20 Summit, the Task Force will report on implementation experience, including examples of good practices to support and foster wider adoption".

The Task Force also announced that it will launch a web-based platform to better support companies interested in implementing its recommendations. The “TCFD Knowledge Hub” will provide tools and other implementation resources as well as references and links to other climate-related disclosure frameworks that have incorporated the TCFD recommendations. The knowledge hub will go live in the first quarter of 2018 and will be available via www.tcfdhub.org.

The Task Force said it would continue its outreach to companies interested in implementing the TCFD recommendations. It encourages the formation of industry-specific forums focused on implementing the TCFD recommendations such as those led by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Institute for International Finance, and UNEP-FI.

Investors back collaborative programme to engage with the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters 

The One Planet Summit also saw the launch of Climate Action 100+, an initiative in which 225 institutional investors will collaborate to engage with the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters so these companies increase their actions on climate change.

The investors who have signed on to the initiative will initially focus their engagement on 100 of the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters which includes companies in the oil and gas, electric power and transportation sectors.

Anne Simpson, Investment Director of Sustainability at CalPERS, said: “Moving 100 of the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to align their business plans with the goals of the Paris Agreement will have considerable ripple effects. Our collaborative engagements with the largest emitters will spur actions across all sectors as companies work to avoid being vulnerable to climate risk and left behind.”

Specifically, as part of their collaborative engagement, investors from around the world will ask companies to implement a strong governance framework which clearly articulates the board’s accountability and oversight of climate change risk; take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their value chain and provide enhanced corporate disclosure in line with the TCFD's final recommendations and sector-specific Global Investor Coalition investor expectations on climate change (when applicable) to enable investors to assess the robustness of companies’ business plans against a range of climate scenarios, including well below 2-degrees Celsius and improve investment decision-making.