Global coalition of stock exchanges to support UN initiative on climate disclosure in line with TCFD

The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative has launched a new workstream to assist stock exchanges in developing best practice reporting guidance for their issuers to ensure globally consistent disclosures incorporating the recommendations from the FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

This new project has been developed in collaboration with the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and former Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, who is now the UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and the UK Prime Minister’s Finance Adviser for COP26.

In connection with this workstream, the SSE has established the Advisory Group on Climate Disclosure (the Advisory Group), which is comprised of SSE Partner Exchanges, observers, and key stakeholders (including members of the SSE’s Regulator, Investor and Corporate Working Groups). Jason Manketo, Global Co-head of Equities and a member of Linklaters’ cross-practice ESG team, has joined as a member of the Advisory Group. The Advisory Group will work with the SSE to create the model guidance for stock exchanges based on existing standards and frameworks.

The work of the Advisory Group will run from September 2020 to approximately June 2021, and the output will feature at the next UN Climate Summit (COP 26) to be held in the UK in November 2021.

As the risks and opportunities arising from climate change become increasingly material, investors need to have the right information, disclosed according to clear, consistent, and comparable standards.

For more information on the new initiative, see here. For the London Stock Exchange’s guide to ESG reporting for issuers, see here.