In June 2017, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) issued its recommendations for producing consistent, comparable, clear, and reliable corporate disclosures of climate-related information to support informed decision-making and capital allocation by investors, lenders, and insurance underwriters.
More than a year and a half later, though almost 800 organizations have publicly expressed support for the recommendations, many market participants have cited a need for practical guidance for companies to use in attempting to fulfill the principles-based recommendations.
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) joined forces to develop the TCFD Implementation Guide using SASB Standards and the CDSB Framework to enhance climate-related financial disclosures in mainstream reporting.
These developments provide an opportunity to advance the agenda on accounting and reporting on environmental issues that has been addressed by UNCTAD for more than two decades. UNCTAD is the host for the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (‘ISAR’), a focal point on enterprise accounting and reporting in the United Nations that focuses on international harmonization of enterprise reporting based on international standards, codes and best practices to facilitate sustainable development.
Since adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by the UN member States, UNCTAD/ISAR has been considering environmental accounting and reporting issues in the broader context of implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and developed its Guidance on Core indicators for entity reporting on the contribution towards implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (GCI).
This work is based on a close cooperation with key initiatives on enterprise reporting on sustainability issues, of which climate -related financial disclosures play a central role.
The workshop is organized by UNCTAD jointly with the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) to discuss issues of practical implementation of climate-related financial disclosures, including the corporate perspective as well as the role of regulation as a driver for implementing the TCFD recommendations in the context of attainment of the SDGs.
The workshop will highlight current good practice in TCFD aligned disclosures, offering real-world examples from annual reports across multiple sectors and industries, as well as explore complementarities between this work and the core SDG indicators for entity reporting, developed by UNCTAD.
Further on, the workshop will provide training on implementation of practical guidance for TCFD implementation released by the CDSB and SASB with aim to help companies enhance the robustness, consistency, comparability, and utility of TCFD implementation and reporting.
<strong>Patrick de Cambourg</strong> is President of the French accounting standards setting authority (ANC/ Autorité des normes comptables. Appointment by the French President in March 2015). As such he is also a Board member of the European body with advisory capacity to the European Commission on IFRS (EFRAG / European Financial Reporting Advisory Group) and a member of the IASB forum of major standards setters (ASAF / Accounting Standards Advisory Forum). In addition, he is a Board member of the French capital markets regulatory and supervisory authority (AMF / Autorité des marchés financiers), of the French banking and insurance supervisory authority (ACPR / Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution) and of the French financial stability board (HCSF / Haut Conseil de Stabilité Financière).
At the special request of the French government, he recently prepared two reports on the future of the accounting profession (June 2018) and on propositions to develop further non-financial information (“Ensuring the relevance and reliability of non-financial information: an ambition and a competitive advantage for a sustainable Europe”). He is currently Chair of the Project Task Force (Corporate reporting Lab@EFRAG) created to respond to the request received from the European Commission on preparatory work for the elaboration of possible European Union non-financial reporting standards.
Patrick de Cambourg, a Political Sciences graduate (Sciences Po Paris), holds also degrees in public law and business law and is Bachelor of Arts. As chartered accountant and auditor, he spent his professional career within the Mazars Group, successively as junior, manager and partner. He became President of Mazars in 1983. In 1995, he was appointed as Chairman of the Management Board of the newly created international partnership and became in 2012 Chairman of the Supervisory Board. Since late 2014, he has been Honorary President of the Mazars Group.
James X. Zhan is director of investment and enterprise at UNCTAD. He leads the team of the World Investment Report and is editor-in-chief of the Transnational Corporations journal. He chairs the Governing Board of the UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative (with all major stock exchanges worldwide as members). He has provided policy advice to numerous governments (including heads of states and cabinets) and parliaments, and global summits (including G20 and BRICS). He led the formulation of global guidelines for a new generation of investment policies, which are used in over 100 countries. He also led the establishment of the World Investment Forum. He is chief strategist for the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies and was Global Agenda Council member of the World Economic Forum. He has held several advisory positions in academic institutions (including at Cambridge University, Columbia University and Cornell University and Oxford University). He has extensive publications on investment, trade and technology related economic and legal issues.
Mardi McBrien is Director Strategic Affairs at the IFRS Foundation where she is currently playing an active role in setting up the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Prior to the IFRS Foundation, Mardi spent over a decade leading the global ESG standard setter, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB). She is a trustee of one of the oldest environmental NGOs, the International Tree Foundation, a founding Board member of WOCAN – Women Organising for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management / W+ Standard, a former member of the UK Financial Reporting Council Advisory Panel, a school governor and a member of the ICAEW Sustainability Advisory Committee. In 2021 Mardi was selected as one of the ESG Foundation’s ones to watch.
Madelyn Antoncic is Managing Partner at Global AI Corp, a Big Data company focusing on ESG/SDG data. She is also CEO of Global Algorithmic Institute.
She is a former Vice-President and Treasurer of the World Bank. She is internationally known for financial innovation including developing catastrophic risk structures to help countries transfer climate-related risk. She has held leadership roles for over 30 years first as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY; and at Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers, PGI and as CEO of SASB.
She is a frequent speaker on sustainability, including at the UN General Assembly SDG Business Forum Plenary; has published on climate-induced catastrophic risk, ESGs, SDGs, and other topics, and is an editorial board member of the JRMFI.
She is a recipient of numerous awards and is on the Board of S&P Global Ratings, FinTech Acquisition Corp IV; and Weill Cornell Medicine. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics, a minor in Finance from New York University, was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Doctoral Fellow.
Her duties among others include supervision and coordination of activities of the United Nations Intergovernmental Working Group on International Accounting and Reporting Standards (ISAR) to assist developing countries and economies in transition to meet international requirements in the area of accounting and reporting. In this regard she leads UNCTAD’s work on formulating and implementation of the Accounting Development Tool (ADT), preparing a guidance on core SDG indicators for entity reporting intended to serve as a tool to assist governments to assess the private sector contribution to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, developing metadata guidance for the SDG indicator 12.6.1 in cooperation with UN Environment, as well as other activities related to corporate financial and non-financial reporting with a view to achieve better quality and international comparability of such reports based on international standards, benchmarks and good practices.
Before joining the United Nations in 2000, she was a partner at KPMG in Moscow where she was in charge of the Methodology department that advised Russian government and companies on transition to IAS/IFRS. She was also a consultant to the World Bank, OECD, EBRD, and other international organizations on accounting and finance issues. In different years she was a member of the Standards Advisory Council of the IASB, of the Education Committee and the Developing Nations Committee of the International Federation of Accountants. She was previously a Professor at Moscow State University teaching accounting and finance and was elected as American Accounting Association Distinguished International Lecturer for 1997.
She holds a PhD degree in accounting from Moscow State University and was a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University, California, in 1992-1993.
Charlotte Gardes is Deputy Head of Unit in charge of Sustainable Finance and ESG reporting at the French Treasury; where she works notably on EU and national sustainable finance regulations and performs economic studies on these issues. She is the rapporteur of the report handed out by Patrick de Cambourg to the French Minister of Economy and Finance in June 2019 on the quality and relevance of non-financial information. Charlotte started her career at the French Securities Markets Authority, in the Department of European and International Regulatory Policy. She is a graduate of Sciences Po Paris in International Economics and of the Sorbonne Law School in Business Law, and currently a Ph.D. candidate in economics, focusing on climate risk and financial regulation.
Thomas Verheye is Principal Advisor at the European Commission's Directorate General for the Environment on matters relating to sustainable finance and investment. He advises the Director General and senior managers on strategic directions and actions necessary for promoting greening the financial system and the economy. His prior positions include several other managerial responsibilities at the Commission including for EU policies on air quality, ozone depleting substances and fluorinated gases, innovative financing solutions relating to climate and energy, technology transfer under the UNFCC, the auto-oil programme, etc. Previous employers include the Bank of New York (VP corporate action at the bank's global custody branch), the International Monetary Fund (Treasurer's department), and Ernst & Young (Audit). He holds a bachelor and master's degree in business economics from the University of Ghent, and an MSc in audit and tax from the Vlerick Business School.
Last updated: August, 2019
Chiara Del Prete has been appointed EFRAG TEG Chairwoman from 1 April 2019.
She has been a partner at Mazars from October 2016 to March 2019, advising financial institutions, banking authorities and listed entities on IFRS and broader corporate reporting, banking regulation, valuation and restructuring. During this period she was also member of Mazars Global IFRS Committee.
From October 2011 to September 2016 Chiara has been Head of accounting principles at UniCredit Group and in charge of the external reporting disclosure for the consolidated and separated financial statements of the group. During this period she was also member of IFRS 9 technical groups of the European Banking Federation (EBF) and of the Italian Banking Association (ABI) and of the Three-Way Dialogue and Senior Accounting Group of the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
In 2010/11 Chiara worked as Project Manager at EFRAG in charge of IAS 39 reform; before this experience in EFRAG as Project Manager, she worked for 11 years in auditing and advisory services in the banking and financial services industry.
Chiara has been member of: ESMA Corporate Reporting Standing Committee (from April 2017 to March 2019), EFRAG Financial Instruments Working Group (from November 2011 to March 2019), IFRS and Financial Instruments technical advisory groups of the Italian standard setter (OIC).
She graduated in Economics at Universita’ Bocconi (Milano) in 1999 and is a registered auditor in Italy since 2006.
Gemma joined the CDSB Secretariat in 2016 to support CDSB's technical work and corporate engagement programmes. After working as an environmental educator for 4 years in London she completed an MSc in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences. This role builds upon her interests in sustainable development and climate change. She currently manages CDSB’s capacity building programmes including the TCFD Knowledge Hub and the Beyond Disclosure programme.
Nontokozo is Corporate Engagement Manager at the Climate Disclosure Standards Board where she supports companies globally with mainstreaming of reporting on climate-related and environmental issues. She has over 10 years of experience in the asset management, banking and insurance sectors having worked within corporate governance, institutional client relationship and sustainability functions. Past roles include that of manager in Standard Bank Group's sustainability unit and senior consultant at award-winning ESG firm, EBS Advisory where she was responsible for engagement with private equity companies and LPs across Africa.
Nontokozo holds a Master of Commerce degree in Development Finance from the University of Cape Town and her dissertation focused on climate change risk integration within investment decision-making. She has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and has completed the academic qualification required for financial advisors under the Financial Planning Institute of Southern Africa.
As Head of Corporate Reporting at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, Richard Martin’s role involves monitoring and scrutinizing developments in financial reporting - particularly within IFRS - and integrated and narrative reporting. His analysis of these issues helps mold ACCA policy. He is also Chairman of the Accounting Expert Group at the European Federation of Accountants and Auditors for SMEs, and a member of the reporting policy groups at Accountancy Europe.
Mr. Martin has been a member of the European Commission Expert Group for the evaluation of IFRS Regulation. He has also contributed to working parties for ISAR - UNCTAD, looking into Reporting and Sustainable Development and in developing accounting guidance for SMEs.
Manjula is an Independent Consultant currently working as Head of Finance- Sustainability at Tesco. She is the finance lead in establishing a reporting framework for Tesco’s sustainability strategy and is also leading the implementation of the TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Disclosures) guidelines. She joined Tesco in September 2016 as Head of Finance- Group External Reporting and has held finance roles across various industries.
A qualified Chartered Accountant, Manjula has a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from the London Business School. She is also a member of the Standards Advisory Group at the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and has worked very closely with the Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) on various projects.
Dr Mario Abela FCPA FCMA is Director of Standards with key responsibility for technical content and interoperability of standards at the Global Reporting Initiative. He is also the Course Convenor and Head Tutor on Governance for Sustainable Future at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leaderships. He is an expert advisor on Sustainability Reporting at Bain &Co and in the past has worked with clients such as United Nations, CERES, Value Balancing Alliance and the Capitals Coalition. He is the past Chair of World Intangible Capital Initiative and has held a number of positions on a number advisory boards for global accounting bodies. Mario is a recognized expert in accounting, reporting and governance. Mario holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of London, a Masters of Science from Linkoping University, Sweden and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has held senior executive positions in both the public and private sector and for the last decade has been working in the area of sustainability and the importance of accounting and governance in companies transitioning to operating in a sustainable economy. Mario is passionate about promoting the role accounting and governance can play in driving towards more sustainable businesses and is a frequent presenter at international conferences and seminars.
Vania Borgerth is the Chair of ISAR’s Regional Alliance for Latin America (ARL).
She is also a Commissioner of CBPS (Brazilian Committee for Sustainability Pronouncements); Board Member of International Ethics Standards Board for Accounting (IESBA), SHIFT Project and International Foundation for Valuing Impacts (IFVI).
At ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board), she represents the Brazilian Institute for Corporate Governance (IBGC) at the Integrated Reporting and Connectivity Council – IRCC (former IIRC) and CBPS at SSAF (Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum). She is also a Member of the Expert Panel of Accounting for Sustainability – A4S.
Mrs. Borgerth is the Head of CBARI - the Brazilian Network for Integrated Reporting. She is a former executive at BNDES (The Brazilian Development Bank) and an active attendee of UNCTAD’s ISAR since 2007 (Chair of 32nd session).
