As a recognized industry leader on sustainability, UBS is actively committed to combatting climate change. UBS joins a group of eleven members of the UN Environment Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) to work on implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TFCD) published on June 29th.
UBS believes timely implementation of the TFCD recommendations is an important step toward delivering the commitments of the Paris Agreement to keep global warming well below 2°C. The recommendations call on companies to disclose the impacts of climate change on their businesses. Investors and financial institutions will also gain transparency to help them make better investment decisions with a common set of data to assess the climate change risks and opportunities of specific companies.
Over the next ten months, UBS will work with other members of UNEP FI to collaborate on developing approaches to help banks disclose their exposures to climate-related risks and opportunities as envisioned by the Task Force.
"We welcome and support the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures," says Liselotte Arni, Head Environmental and Social Risk Management. "They represent a major step forward to help businesses and investors assess the risks and exposures associated with climate change. We look forward to working with other banks on implementing the TFCD's recommendations."
The TFCD was mandated in December 2015 by the Financial Stability Board's Chairmen Mark Carney and Michael Bloomberg to provide recommendations and guidance on climate-related disclosure. The TFCD's final recommendations were published on June 29th, 2017 and were presented to the G20 Summit in Hamburg last week.
The goal of the recommendations is to facilitate the flow of climate-related financial information to and from financial markets. Increasing the availability of information will improve financial institutions' understanding of climate-related risks and opportunities. This is vital to enable the transition to a low-carbon economy that will require an estimated USD 93 trillion investment in infrastructure over 15 years to keep global warming below the 2°C target level agreed at Paris.