Scaling the e-mobility transition: climate-related financial disclosure and the automotive sector

Geneva, 26 May 2021: Today, through collaboration with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), leading automotive manufacturers and service providers provide an in-depth look at climate-related scenarios, risk management and disclosure in Planning to scale the e-mobility transition: climate-related financial disclosure and the automotive sector.

As part of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Preparer Forum for the Automotive sector, BMW, Daimler, General Motors, LeasePlan, Mahindra Group and Volkswagen share examples, learnings and reflections on how they are implementing the TCFD recommendations and responding to climate-related risks and opportunities. Highlights include:

• Descriptions of e-mobility planning, including investments and technology development.
• Illustrative scenario analysis process considering the enabling environment and conditions for e-mobility.
• The integration of climate-related risks into enterprise risk management processes.
• Insights on supply chain due diligence, the just transition and mobility solutions
• Illustrative operational and financial metrics

Participating Forum member Daimler AG´s Harald Wilhelm, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, responsible for Finance & Controlling, Daimler Mobility commented “About one fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions in Europe are produced as a result of the transport of people and goods on streets and roads — and that share is rising. It is the responsibility of our industry to take deliberate measures to counteract this trend by developing technical innovations that will lead to CO2-neutral mobility around the world. This mission will require a high level of investment, and transparency about it is a natural requirement of investors. The recommendations of the TCFD provide a profound framework to foster transparency on how companies are managing climate related risks and opportunities as part of their business models and processes, and in terms of their strategic resilience in a constantly changing environment. This report promotes the importance of such measures, offers insights into existing best practices and is another building block of this journey.”

Dr Nicolas Peter, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, Finance shared “At the BMW Group, we are driving ahead an integrated approach to sustainability with concrete goals up to 2030 in line with the Paris Agreement. We are committed to achieve climate neutrality across the entire value chain by no later than 2050. Our strategy and reporting clearly aligns the company and helps to ensure that we achieve our goals and make our actions transparent. This is also what our new BMW Group Report represents. We are the first automotive manufacturer listed on the DAX to combine our Sustainable Value Report with our Annual Report to create our BMW Group Report from the reporting year 2020 on. In its reporting procedures, the BMW Group also takes the TCFD recommendations into account in order to report transparently on climate risks and opportunities for operational and financial reporting purposes.”

“It has been established beyond doubt that business actions impact nature and climate. This, in turn, comes back to create risks for business operation. The TCFD framework helps companies understand the interaction of business and climate. With increasing focus on ESG by investors and the recent growth of ESG oriented funds, companies would do well to integrate the TCFD recommendation into their business disclosures. This report will give your business leaders, many insights.” said Anirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer, Mahindra Group.

“The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time. Over their entire life cycles, our products alone (passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) are responsible for approximately 1% of the total global CO2 emissions produced. Consequently our goal is to improve the total life-cycle carbon footprint of our passenger cars and light commercial vehicles by 30% compared to 2015 by as early as 2025 on our way of being carbon neutral in 2050. The adoption of the TCFD recommendations helps us to better demonstrate responsibility and foresight in our consideration of climate issues in general and especially to the financial market. That will lead to smarter, more efficient allocation of capital, and will support the transition to a more sustainable, low-carbon economy. We appreciate the collaborative process within the TCFD preparer Forum and we hope that this dialogue and discussion continues.” said Dr Daniel-Sascha Roth, Volkswagen Group, Head of Sustainability Management.

The TCFD Auto Preparer Forum report is the last in a series of TCFD implementation projects that WBCSD has conducted with specific sectors. The Preparer Forum projects started in October 2017 with the oil and gas industry and WBCSD has since facilitated projects focusing on electric utilities, chemicals and construction, food, agriculture and forest products. Each Forum comprised members from up to six companies who brought their experience and insights to the project and contributed examples of good disclosure practice.  

“The Preparer Forum projects have been widely recognized as supporting greater awareness and understanding of the TCFD’s recommendations and providing valuable practical guidance. WBCSD very much appreciates the hard work and wisdom contributed by companies that participated in the Preparer Forums and values inputs from the financial institutions whose experts participated in dialogues with Forum members. We also warmly thank the TCFD Secretariat for their advice and guidance in developing the projects. Finally, WBCSD is extremely grateful for the support we received from Bloomberg Philanthropies to facilitate the Preparer Forums and publish the reports that provide inspiration to others on their TCFD implementation journey.” Dr Rodney Irwin, Chief Operating Officer, WBCSD.