Key players across food, agriculture and forest products sectors share TCFD implementation experience

Geneva, 9 April 2020: Today, leading food, agriculture and forest products companies, through collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), provide an in-depth look at climate-related disclosure in the new report Disclosure in a time of system transformation: TCFD disclosure for food, agriculture and forest products companies.

As part of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Preparer Forum for Food, Agriculture & Forest Products, WBCSD’s member companies Mondi, Nestlé, Olam, Unilever, Stora Enso and Syngenta share examples, lessons learned and reflections on how they are implementing the TCFD recommendations and responding to climate-related risks and opportunities.

As COVID-19 has shaken the global landscape significantly, companies’ operations, value chains and risk management are under enormous stress and their readiness to respond to current risks such as pandemics and climate change are being questioned. The TCFD recommendations are the most important and transparent leverage to link climate-related risks and opportunities to company decisions and capital market valuations. Driving the risk assessment, strategic scenario building, management and investor action to realize the low-carbon transition. – said Rodney Irwin, Managing Director, Redefining Value and Education, WBCSD.

Financial markets need better, more comparable and complete information about climate change. The TCFD aims to address this issue through their recommendations, designed to help companies disclose climate-related financial risks and opportunities. This report, in conjunction with the work of other TCFD Preparer Forums, helps companies implement the TCFD’s recommendations on climate-related financial disclosure. The report showcases examples of effective disclosure practice across governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets.

Highlights include:

• The integration of climate-related risks and opportunities into risk management processes with insights from risk professionals;
  • Strategic responses to climate change and the low-carbon transition realized through innovation & technology, natural climate solutions, the circular bioeconomy, farmer and smallholder resilience and managing loss and waste;
  • The use of scenario analysis to asses business and climate resilience, supporting complex decision making;
  • Illustrative climate-related metrics relating to low-carbon solutions, adaptation and resilience measures, productivity and resource management;
  • Perspectives and insights from users including equity and credit analysts.

Building on the efforts of the TCFD Oil & Gas, Electric Utilities, Chemicals, Construction and Building Materials and Food, Agriculture & Forest Products Preparer Forums, WBCSD will initiate a TCFD Preparer Forum for companies involved in the manufacture and leasing of automobiles.

Quotes of support

As a leading packaging and paper group we are committed to tackling the climate crisis, through a holistic approach that integrates responsible forest management, water stewardship and reducing emissions. We support the TCFD framework as it encourages transparency in reporting and enables all stakeholders, especially investors, to better understand how a company is addressing its climate-related risks and opportunities. This will enable financial markets to recognise and reward sustainable performance in future. – Andrew King, CEO, Mondi

Climate change is one of the biggest threats we face as a society and one of the greatest risks to the future of our business. Without prompt collective action, the world will run out of time to avoid the worst effects of global warming. That is why Nestlé pledged in 2019 to reach a net-zero future by 2050. We have started to implement the TCFD recommendations and were pleased to collaborate on the WBCSD’s Food, Agriculture & Forest Products TCFD Preparer Forum with other companies. We welcome this report to promote transparency, comparability and consistency between companies regarding their climate disclosures. – François-Xavier Roger, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer at Nestlé

The Olam of today is a purpose-led company focused on “Re-imagining global agriculture and food systems” to meet the demands of a growing population, whilst staying within our planetary boundaries and creating long-term value. We believe that implementing the TCFD recommendations will allow our sector and our stakeholders to better assess and bring transparency to how climate-related issues affect our current and future financial positions, improve business resilience, drive operational efficiencies and better leverage sustainable opportunities. – Neelamani Muthukumar, Group CFO, Olam International Ltd

It’s fundamental for every good business to manage and communicate risks and opportunities. Climate change is no different. It’s a risk that is already affecting companies today – through the impacts of changing weather patterns and emerging policies around the world. The work of the task force and TCFD Preparer Forums supports a practical response providing information and transparency to help investors make better decisions for the long term, information for our markets to operate efficiently and beyond markets, providing the transparency that is increasingly important to our consumers too. In our Annual Report, we disclosed details of our scenario analysis and the material impacts that might arise from 2 and 4-degree warming scenarios. We hope that by sharing our experience in conducting and disclosing the outcomes of the scenario analysis, other companies will follow suit. I’d urge all companies to adopt the recommendations. – Graeme Pitkethly, Chief Financial Officer, Unilever and Vice Chair, TCFD.

Society needs a way to judge if companies are making the right choices for the planet and to remain resilient to climate change. To do this, it is important that companies pursue, realize, and communicate low-carbon transition opportunities consistent with the TCFD recommendations. At Stora Enso, climate efforts are integrated into our strategy. Our bio-based products replace fossil-based materials: they are the opportunity. – Seppo Parvi, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Deputy to the CEO, Country Manager Finland, Stora Enso

Syngenta is investing to help farmers deal with the effects of climate change today and helping agriculture to explore its large carbon sequestration potential via soil and other nature based solutions. Implementing the TCFD recommendations is providing us with valuable insights that will help us accelerate innovation to address especially the opportunities farmers and thus R&D companies have. We believe that better and more consistent climate-related disclosure can help investors and companies discuss the opportunities associated with their activities, and hope this publication will encourage others in the sector join us in this journey. – Alexandra Brand, Chief Sustainability Officer, Syngenta