IIF Authors

Status: Will be live at 05/04/2016 00:00

Response - Report of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

The IIF filed a staff response to the phase one report of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, a private-sector group chaired by Michael Bloomberg and organized at the behest of the FSB to develop a framework for useful and comparable voluntary disclosures by private-sector issuers on financial risks they may face from climate change. Financial institutions are concerned both as issuers that will be expected to make such disclosures, and as users of disclosures by firms in which they invest or to which they extend credit. The response generally supported the principles proposed in the report and its intent to balance the costs and benefits of disclosure, incorporating the principle of materiality. The response also offered specific suggestions that would help make the explanations of the report's principles more realistic and manageable given the complexity, forward-looking nature, and immaturity of climate-disclosure issues. The response expressed the hope that the industry and the IIF can be included in the development of the detailed disclosure recommendations that will be included in the Task Force's phase-two report later this year.