The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and EFRAG have jointly published a mapping of the correspondence between the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the TNFD’s recommended disclosures and metrics.
The two shared that this assessment highlights that all 14 TNFD-recommended disclosures are reflected in the ESRS.
The parties noted that the correspondence table was created to help companies understand the commonalities between ESRS and TNFD, providing a detailed mapping of the disclosures and core metrics recommended by the TNFD and required under ESRS.
The table also aims to help European undertakings in the scope of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) that consider alignment with TNFD.
EFRAG and TNFD have collaborated closely for over two years to maximise the consistency of the ESRS environmental standards and the TNFD recommendations as they were being developed in parallel.
The ESRS were issued as a Delegated Act in July 2023, and the TNFD recommendations in September 2023.
In December of last year, EFRAG and TNFD signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue this collaboration.
The high level of correspondence between the ESRS environmental standards beyond climate change (E2-E5) and the TNFD recommendations and core metrics is reflected, among others, through the following:
- Both the TNFD and ESRS recommend the need to disclose nature-related impacts, risks and opportunities. This includes dependencies on nature to the extent that they generate material risks.
- The ESRS require disclosures to be based on a double materiality principle. The TNFD approach enables different approaches to materiality, including the double materiality approach required by the ESRS.
- The TNFD developed the LEAP approach for market participants to identify and assess their nature-related issues. The ESRS states that companies may conduct their materiality assessment on the sustainability matters of pollution, water, biodiversity and ecosystems, and circular economy using the LEAP approach.
- Both the TNFD recommended disclosures and the ESRS reporting areas are organised around the four disclosure pillars of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics and Targets.
- All 14 disclosures recommended by the TNFD are reflected in the ESRS. The disclosures recommended by the TNFD and the ESRS requirements are both designed to provide relevant and faithful information on nature-related sustainability matters. There is also strong consistency between the TNFD core global disclosure metrics and the related metrics in the ESRS.