This report was originally published by the European Commission.
In March 2018, the European Commission published its Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth (Action Plan), which sets out a comprehensive strategy to further connect finance with sustainability.
In Action 9.2 of the Action Plan, the European Commission committed to revise the non-binding guidelines (NBGs)2 of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD)3 governing disclosure of environmental, social, and governance-related information. Specifically, Action 9.2 states that the Commission will update the NBGs to “provide further guidance to companies on how to disclose climate-related information, in line with the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the climate-related metrics developed under the new classification system.” The Commission is expected to publish its updated guidelines in June 2019.
In June 2018, the European Commission set up a technical expert group on sustainable finance (TEG) to assist in four key areas of the Action Plan through the development of the following: 1) a unified classification system for sustainable economic activities, 2) an EU green bond standard, 3) benchmarks for low-carbon investment strategies, and 4) guidance to improve corporate disclosure of climate-related information.
The TEG began work in July 2018 and has a one-year mandate, which it carries out through formal plenaries and sub group meetings for each work stream.4 The TEG has 35 members that come from civil society, academia, business, and the finance sector and includes additional members and observers from EU and international public bodies.
This report is the TEG’s final report on climate-related disclosures. In drafting this report, the TEG has sought the views of stakeholders through a number of outreach activities, including an open stakeholder meeting convened by the European Commission on 18 October 2018 and meetings with banks (6 November 2018) and listed companies (12 November 2018). The TEG invites stakeholders to send comments on this report via the dedicated webpage6 by Friday, 1 February 2019. The TEG will report back to the services of the European Commission on the comments received, but will not produce a revised version of this report.
The European Commission will decide the content of the updated guidelines and the extent to which they reflect the ideas contained in this report. The TEG understands that the services of the European Commission intend to consult stakeholders on the update of the guidelines before their planned adoption in June 2019…”
Read on and access the full report at: European Commission.
