Enhanced TCFD-aligned transparency for an economically and environmentally resilient Brazilian financial system

Brazil is Latin America’s largest economy, and home to immense natural resources, including over 40% of the world’s tropical forests. However, deforestation is one of Brazil’s largest contributors to GHG emissions.

Disclosure of climate- and deforestation-related financial risks could help shift investments away from high-emitting and environmentally damaging activities in the forestry sector, while contributing to a green recovery post-pandemic. However, there is currently limited climate risk integration in financial decision-making, and inconsistent use of disclosure practices due to a lack of capacity and awareness across the financial sector:

• Corporates have limited understanding, knowledge and skills regarding climate and deforestation risks, and opportunities in governance and financial decision-making
• FIs do not have the relevant information to assess climate risks and opportunities in their investment portfolios, including commodity sectors
• Policy makers lack climate risk management capabilities and established targets

The project contributed to capacity and knowledge building about climate-related financial risk disclosures in the Brazilian financial sector, as recommended by the TCFD.

It focused on three key activities:

• Report on TCFD readiness of Brazilian companies: Information on the top 100 listed Brazilian companies was collected and analysed to assess their TCFD reporting readiness. As a result, feedback and support was offered to these companies to improve reporting capacity. Additionally, the report provided recommendations to the Brazilian B3 stock exchange on how to strengthen reporting guidance for listed companies
• Training and capacity-building activities for the private sector: Enhancing capacity and knowledge of corporates and FIs to incorporate Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and TCFD objectives in their disclosure practices
• Training and capacity-building activities for the public sector: Improving knowledge of processes amongst cities and states about the impact of TCFD recommendations and requirements on reporting transparency and emission reduction opportunities

The project made a tangible impact on the level of climate disclosure knowledge and capacity within the participating organisations – leading to an increase in the number of corporates and FIs reporting from 2020 to 2021, and an improvement in the scores achieved. In the same year, data showed a 28% increase in the number of companies implementing traceability systems – a key mechanism to reduce deforestation by helping companies track the origin of commodities and assess the relative deforestation risk.

The project’s approach to Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) was built on and complemented by CDP North America’s parallel initiative JEDIA (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility). While JEDIA’s work focused on internal organisational practices and policies, the UK PACT project encouraged them to think more broadly about integrating GESI across their programmes, activities and interactions with project stakeholders.

The project summarised a suite of potential GESI actions in four categories:

1. Event participation

• Diverse panellists/speakers
• Participant data disaggregated by gender and marginalised or vulnerable groups
• Diverse panellists/speakers and participants invited to the events

2. Content

• Inclusive review process
• GESI aware/reflexive content
• Inclusive and simple language/accessible content

3. Dissemination

• Distribution reaches a diverse and inclusive audience and varied platforms

4. Cross-org

• Standardisation of GESI templates
• Alignment of GESI actions with the JEDIA (Internal and External) strategies

Since CDP did not have a standardised, contextualised approach to GESI, the UK PACT support offered the opportunity to analyse and reflect on CDP’s GESI approach at a programmatic level. This work’s multiplier effect is expected to lead to a standardised approach to mainstream GESI in CDP’s work with the more than 13,000 companies globally in the future.

While the project contributed to enhancing awareness and uptake of climate-risk disclosure and reporting, there are still significant challenges that will need to be overcome. The number of companies in Brazil and across Latin America that report emissions is still relatively low and/or data is of poor quality. Building on the project’s results, these issues need to be addressed further to enable FIs to more accurately assess their lending and investment portfolios’ climate impact.

The project also demonstrated a successful approach to mainstreaming GESI across the organisation, by upskilling frontline staff to act as true agents of change and enable GESI conversations across projects and stakeholders. This could potentially generate a multiplier effect in the countries of operations and, more broadly, generate change across other regions.