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Businesses and financial institutions are increasingly aware of nature-related risks and opportunities.
By Daniel O'Brien, Sustainability and Climate Change, Partner, PwC Canada and Will Evison, Climate and Nature Strategy, Director, PwC UK. In 2020, Nature Risk Rising - a collaboration between PwC and the World Economic Forum - reported the landmark statistic that more than half of global GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature. It also highlighted the urgent need to identify, manage and report on the materiality of nature risks and opportunities to businesses, financial institutions, asset owners, regulators and governments. The Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is a market-led, government-supported group that was established in 2021 to address this need.
The TNFD identified key nature-related data challenges
TNFD’s Data and Analytics working group (led by PwC), developed a Data Discussion paper which was released by the TNFD in March 2022 and updated in June 2022 to incorporate guidance on metrics and provide case studies. It identified data shortcomings related to geographic and temporal variation in available data and lack of a consistent taxonomy and criteria to assess quality. However, a key finding was not a shortage of nature-related data, but rather a lack of understanding from end-users about how this data can be used to generate information that is decision-relevant.
A new Nature-related Data Catalyst will address these challenges
In response, the TNFD launched a Nature-related Data Catalyst Initiative (DCI) in July 2022, with the goal of stimulating innovation and improving market access to nature-related data. PwC is playing a key role in managing this initiative, which aims to identify and classify existing nature-related data platforms and tools, highlighting opportunities for growth and collaboration among players. It also aims to deepen understanding of nature-related data gaps or shortcomings that would prevent organisations from being able to adopt and implement the recommendations of the TNFD with ease and at scale.
The Nature-related Data Catalyst will deliver key insights to support organisations to adopt the TNFD
The DCI will bring together representatives from over 50 organisations working in the field of nature-related data through a series of surveys and workshops to discuss and address:
- Availability of data for specific use cases
Challenges and opportunities in relation to the emerging approach for TNFD metrics and targets - impacts and dependencies
Innovation in data and analytics to support nature risk assessment.
The insights gathered over the next year through the DCI will attempt to address the challenges and questions identified in the Data Discussion paper and support examples, case studies and pilots of the TNFD framework.
We invite interested organisations to apply to join the initiative, although be quick because the window for applications is closing soon! Alternatively, sign upOpens in a new window to the TNFD mailing list for newsletter updates.
About the Author
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