Awareness of the economic value of nature to business is growing. Over half of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependant on nature. In Australia, the success of many of our industries, including agriculture, fishing, forestry, tourism, and resources depends on nature.
Every day, our understanding of nature’s contributions to our economy and wellbeing grows. Yet, nature is still undervalued and often neglected in financial and business decision making. As awareness of the climate-nature nexus grows, nature is becoming more prominent in climate conversations, with the global community recognising that achieving net zero emissions requires a transition to nature-positive.
We are supporting a number of initiatives to:
- spotlight the economic benefits of nature, and the risks and opportunities it brings to businesses and financial institutions
- help businesses and financial institutions understand and manage nature-related risks and act on nature-related opportunities
- align financial flows with nature-positive investments, activities and outcomes.
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) launched in June 2021 to develop a global nature-related risk management and disclosure framework. The framework will help businesses and financial institutions identify and act on nature-related risks and opportunities.
The TNFD has since amassed international interest, including:
- support from the G7 Finance, Climate and Environment Ministers and the G20 Environment Ministers
- interest from the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
The TNFD recommendations were released on 18 September 2023.
Our support for the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures
We support the TNFD as a strategic funding partner and are a member of the TNFD Stewardship Council.
In 2022, we hosted a series of workshops in partnership with several industry peak bodies. Through the workshops, we identified a need for in-depth testing of the TNFD framework in Australia.
To help meet this need, we have commissioned EY to design and implement five nationally significant piloting case studies to test the draft TNFD framework. Over twenty Australian organisations from the real economy and financial sector participated. The pilots covered the following five value chains:
- Critical mineral mining for producing clean energy technologies
- Natural gas extraction for industrial manufacturing
- Domestically sourced fresh beef and salmon sold at a supermarket
- Property development and building construction
- Domestic cultivation of cotton for export
We have published a TNFD Pilots - Australian case study report to capture the findings and lessons learnt from the pilots. This report has been developed to assist organisations undertaking voluntary nature-related risk and opportunity assessments aligned with the TNFD framework. The report details how Australian businesses approached their TNFD nature-related risk and opportunity assessment approach, including the challenges, enabling tools, data and resourcing requirements, and example outputs.
An additional five value chain deep-dive guidance documents have been published alongside the case study report. The value chain guidance provides further information on each of the pilots, including their alignment with nationally significant criteria, the materiality of nature-related impacts and dependencies, and example risks and opportunities for different industries across the value chain.
See below for the TNFD Pilots case study report package.
Download
TNFD Pilots - Australian case study report (PDF - 1.5 MB)
TNFD Pilots - Australian case study report (DOCX - 2 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Critical mineral mining for producing clean energy technologies (PDF - 1.8 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Critical mineral mining for producing clean energy technologies (DOCX - 1 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Natural gas extraction for industrial manufacturing (PDF - 1.3 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Natural gas extraction for industrial manufacturing (DOCX - 1 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Domestically sourced fresh beef and salmon sold at a supermarket (PDF - 1.5 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Domestically sourced fresh beef and salmon sold at a supermarket (DOCX - 1MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Property development and building construction (PDF - 1.5 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Property development and building construction (DOCX - 1 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Domestic cotton cultivation for export (PDF - 1.5 MB)
Value chain deep-dive guidance - Domestic cotton cultivation for export (DOCX - 1 MB)
If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.
TNFD Consultation Group for Australia and New Zealand
The Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA) is the Convenor for the TNFD Consultation Group in Australia and New Zealand. We support RIAA in this role to help drive Australian engagement with the TNFD.
RIAA is currently delivering a series of TNFD workshops for Australian and New Zealand businesses interested in engaging with the framework.
Contact us
Please email financingsolutionsfornature@dcceew.gov.au