Roadmap for Nature-related Data
Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) releases a roadmap for nature-related data, aiming to propose long-term measures to help the market acquire and use nature-related data.
The TNFD believes that the scope and quality of nature-related data are important elements in achieving the Global Biodiversity Framework, and establishing and enhancing the value chain of nature-related data is a priority for businesses to address nature-related risks and opportunities.
Related Post: TNFD Releases Global Natural Data Report
Background of Roadmap for Nature-related Data
In September 2023, the TNFD issued disclosure recommendations to provide a framework for enterprises and financial institutions to evaluate and report on natural issues. With the attention of investors, consumers, and other stakeholders, obtaining high-quality, timely, and reliable nature-related data has become a key task of the TNFD. The TNFD has released the TNFD Tools Catalogue, providing the market with an overview of available nature-related data tools.
In 2023, TNFD conducted a study on the Global Nature Data Public Facility to address market failures in providing nature-related data. TNFD finds that an infrastructure that integrates businesses, financial institutions, and data providers can enhance the scope and quality of nature-related data. The infrastructure will promote open access to nature-related data through distributed access and decentralized data exchange, encourage public and private data providers to participate, and align with current nature-related information disclosure standards.
Market Demand for Nature-related Data
The TNFD believes that there are three factors driving the demand for nature-related:
- Investor driven: Asset owners and asset managers are understanding nature-related issues and reviewing the nature-related risk exposures of their investment portfolios in order to mitigate risks.
- Voluntary disclosure driven: Numerous international standards for natural and biodiversity information disclosure have established a natural disclosure framework, requiring companies to disclose sustainable risks and opportunities related to nature.
- Regulatory driven: Some jurisdictions are developing mandatory disclosure policies for nature related information.
Since 2022, over 240 companies and financial institutions have tested the LEAP method released by the TNFD and obtained the following results:
- The market lacks understanding of available nature-related data and requires a significant amount of time to search for and access specific data.
- Insufficient location data of nature-related assets affects the evaluation of enterprises and their upstream and downstream value chains.
- The existing internal data quantity and quality are insufficient, and there is a lack of enterprise wide data sharing.
- There is still room for improvement in the consistency, timeliness, and credibility of existing data.
- The paid licensing system has increased the cost of natural assessment for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Introduction to Roadmap for Nature-related Data
Based on the aforementioned research on nature-related data, the TNFD plans to collaborate with the supply and demand sides of nature-related data value chain by 2025, with a focus on the following key areas:
- Based on existing scientific and open data standards, define and clarify a set of comprehensive data principles.
- Identify and clarify the quality improvement of the nature data value chain that needs to be prioritized and funded.
- Explain and test natural data public facility for market participants.
The TNFD has developed a timetable and set a work roadmap for 2025 and 2026. The work route will meet the funding needs of upstream data providers, address the scope and quality gap of critical data, and improve the convenience of downstream users in accessing data. The work route will also focus on the cost issue of using nature related data by enterprises, promote data standardization, and make improvements to third-party audits to improve the quality of information disclosure.
Reference:
TNFD Releases Draft Roadmap for Enhancing Market Access to High Quality Nature-related Data
