The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has requested that the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) make a “swift” start in developing a thematic standard on nature and biodiversity-related risks and opportunities. To ensure the rapid development of such a standard, the FCA suggested that the ISSB should “leverage existing work”, such as that by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) framework which is due to issue its final recommendations later this month. The FCA recommended a “more holistic approach” be taken that captures the “full implications” of nature-related disclosures in line with the approach taken by the TNFD. “If the ISSB is to be able to draw on the TNFD framework to inform a thematic standard on nature, it will be important that the TNFD’s disclosure recommendations can be applied effectively with the ISSB’s investor materiality lens,” the FCA said in its consultation response. It also recommended in the medium term for the ISSB to consider a project for the development of a thematic standard for reporting on human capital and human rights.
