Climate-related risks

Globally consistent and comparable disclosures by companies of their climate-related financial risks are increasingly important to market participants and financial authorities, in order to give financial markets the information they need to manage risks, and seize opportunities, stemming from climate change.

Climate-related financial Disclosures

The FSB created the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in 2015 to develop a set of voluntary disclosure recommendations for use by companies in providing decision-useful information to investors, lenders and insurance underwriters about the climate-related financial risks and opportunities that companies face. The TCFD, which brought together a wide range of users and preparers of financial reports, published its disclosure recommendations in 2017. The recommendations have become a widely-used basis for climate-related reporting, including in the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB), sustainability disclosure standards. The FSB welcomes the publication of the  The ISSB Standards will serve as a global framework for sustainability disclosures and, when implemented, will enable disclosures by different companies around the world to be made on a common basis. The FSB will work with the ISSB, IOSCO and other relevant bodies to promote the timely and wide use of the standards.

Following the delivery of the TCFD’s 2023 annual status report, the FSB has asked the ISSB to take over the monitoring of the progress on companies’ climate-related disclosures from the TCFD as of 2024.

The FSB will continue to monitor work to strengthen the relevance, reliability and comparability of climate-related financial disclosures through its annual Progress Report on Climate-Related Disclosures.

The specific nature of climate-related risks has implications for the data needed to monitor and assess their implications for financial stability. The FSB is working to establish a basis of comprehensive, consistent and comparable data that can be used to monitor and assess climate-related financial risks faced by both individual companies and by the financial system. This data should:

• Capture exposures of financial firms to climate-related risks, particularly those of a scale or concentration that might threaten financial stability.

• Support a global comparison and aggregation of financial firms’ exposures to climate-related risks.

• Support forward-looking assessments of climate-related risks to financial stability.

• Capture climate-related risk transfer and mitigation.

In July 2021, the FSB published a report examining the availability of data with which to monitor and assess climate-related risks to financial stability. As a result of this analysis, the FSB has identified important data gaps hindering such assessments and priority areas of work to address this. These include:

• Data on the drivers of climate-related risks to non-financial entities

• Data on non-financial entities’ exposure to climate-related risks

• Data with which to monitor and assess the exposures of financial institutions to climate-related risks

• Data to assess mitigants of financial institutions’ exposures to climate-related risks

• Data to assess the potential for widespread changes in risk premia due to climate change

• Data to assess the potential resilience of the financial system to widespread increases in risk premia

• Availability of data with which to perform scenario analysis

Priority areas of work to address data gaps in climate-related financial stability risks

The global, yet highly uncertain, nature of climate risks calls for further efforts to develop and refine the analytical tools used to assess climate-related vulnerabilities.

The FSB’s work aims to more systematically assess and better understand climate-related financial vulnerabilities and potential financial stability impacts. Our reports The implications of climate change for financial stability and Stocktake of financial authorities’ experience in including physical and transition climate risks as part of their financial stability monitoring are foundational for building greater understanding of the macro-level financial stability risks of climate change.

In November 2022, the FSB published a joint report with the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) on climate-related scenario analysis. The report provides a synthesis of the findings from climate scenario analysis exercises undertaken by financial authorities at the individual firm level, at the level of the different financial sectors, and at the overall financial system level.

Supervisory and regulatory approaches to climate-related risks should be fully integrated within the overall supervisory and regulatory approaches to address financial risks.

In April 2022, the FSB published a consultation report on supervisory and regulatory approaches to climate-related risks. The report aims to assist supervisory and regulatory authorities in developing their approaches to monitor, manage and mitigate risks arising from climate change and, in particular, to promote consistent approaches across sectors and jurisdictions.

In October 2022, the FSB published a report on supervisory and regulatory approaches to climate-related risks. The report aims to assist supervisory and regulatory authorities in developing their approaches to monitor, manage and mitigate risks arising from climate change and, in particular, to promote consistent approaches across sectors and jurisdictions.