Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures

Baroness Willis of Summertown Excerpts

Tuesday 30th April 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Willis of Summertown]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what progress they have made in exploring how best the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures framework can be incorporated into UK policy and legislation in line with their commitment in the 2023 Green Finance Strategy.

[Baroness Willis of Summertown (CB)]

I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper and refer to my declaration of interests in the register.

[The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Benyon) (Con)]

My Lords, the Government remain a big supporter and funder of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures. At COP 26, the UK backed the International Sustainability Standards Board to bring much-needed harmonisation to global sustainability reporting. I am pleased that the ISSB recently confirmed that it will explore a nature standard, drawing on the work of the TNFD. The Government have established a framework for once that standard is developed to assess the ISSB’s standards for suitability in the UK context.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Willis of Summertown (CB)]

I thank the Minister for his response, but I worry that we are just not moving fast enough. For example, last week the Green Finance Institute published a report that found that UK firms are now highly exposed to nature risk and that nature degradation could slow down our GDP, with an estimated 12% loss in the near term. Putting that into context, that is a greater drop than we saw during the Covid pandemic. Does the Minister agree that ambitious policy is urgently needed on this, as well as mandatory disclosures against the TNFD, to enable UK companies to understand better their impacts on and risks from the environment, particularly nature and the ecosystem services that it provides?

[Lord Benyon (Con)]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. Assessing the Materiality of Nature-Related Financial Risks for the UK is an outstanding report, which needs to be read by chairmen of risk companies all over the world. It identifies precisely that this problem is not just about the environment but about risk. The net-zero economy grew by 9% last year. The value of net-zero technologies is now £74 billion, and the same will happen for nature. Therefore, there is an economic imperative as well as one that should drive us because we need to do the right thing for nature.