Ensuring robust and transparent corporate sustainability disclosure is integral to the role of board directors. The subset of climate and nature disclosure provides the organisation, its investors and wider stakeholders (including business partners and customers) with important information on the organisation’s climate- and nature-related risks, opportunities and impacts. This, in turn, supports informed decision-making.
This navigator provides an overview of the evolving global landscape of corporate climate and nature disclosure and sets out key messages for board directors.
Key messages for board directors
- The board plays an important role in ensuring all statutory reporting and disclosure obligations are met, including climate and nature disclosure, and that the organisation follows best practice frameworks and standards (voluntary or mandatory). An organisation may be subject to mandatory climate disclosure because of its location (local regulation including stock exchange rulings) or by being within the value chain of others obliged to disclose.
- Climate and nature-related risks are material financial risks to organisations that affect value creation. The board should ensure that the organisation is managing these risks, taking advantage of opportunities, and making good progress against its climate and nature goals. These considerations should inform the business strategy.
- Being well-informed of existing climate and nature disclosure frameworks and standards, including upcoming and future trends, will help the board and the organisation to meet and respond to requirements and expectations from multiple stakeholders including investors, lenders, insurance providers, financial institutions, policymakers and regulatory authorities, employees, customers, local communities and indigenous communities.
Evolve your strategy ahead of reporting and disclosure obligations, because then you are ahead of the curve, as it were. You could wait until the regulator steps up, but then you'd be rushing to catch up with the rest of your peers, making it an even more crowded space. But if you're farsighted, if you're looking around the corner, if you're a discerning board that has strong critical thinking skills, then this is an inevitable transition and you want to be ahead of the narrative.
Sunita Rajakamur, board director, Malaysia
This navigator will help board directors understand the evolving landscape of climate and nature disclosure and identify the standards and frameworks most relevant to their organisations.