Last month, I wrote about the FCA’s proposal to eliminate TCFD disclosures for investment products. Under the FCA’s plan, climate information would be bifurcated. Retail investors would only get part of the picture, while institutional investors could request emissions inventories on Scopes 1-3 once a year. The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) recently announced their opposition to the changes in a consultation response, stating:
“Simplification should not come at the expense of information that is decision-useful for investors or necessary to fulfil their fiduciary responsibilities. We are concerned with the proposal that firms are only required to provide data on scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions when requested by institutional investors to satisfy their climate disclosure obligations. This would significantly reduce access to data required by institutional investors. There is a risk that institutional investors won’t have access to comparable, decision-useful data that not only satisfies their own climate-related financial disclosure obligations but does not cover information needed to manage their own climate-related risks and opportunities.”
The FCA’s review of the current disclosure regime found that retail investors are often confused by TCFD disclosures. The plan is an attempt to present retail investors with basic information while keeping detailed information available to institutional investors. However, PRI finds this approach troublesome. While institutional investors would have access to emissions inventories on request, PRI identifies other information that financial firms would no longer have to disclose. This includes SBTi portfolio alignment, Implied Temperature Risk, and Climate Value-at-Risk information. PRI suggests refining communications strategies for retail investors without depriving institutional investors of valuable information.
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