Environmental non-profit CDP has joined forces with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to develop a new standard to help organisations improve their accountability of biodiversity impacts.
Once the new standard is published, CDP will use it to inform its disclosure system for investors, companies and cities looking to manage their environmental risks.
In addition, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has confirmed that the revised GRI standard will be used when developing a new financial disclosure framework for nature-related risks.
It is hoped that this will pave the way for a harmonised approach to biodiversity disclosures, with the final standard expected by the end of 2022.
“This collaboration with GRI allows CDP to build upon our decade-long work on water and forests, helping to ensure that corporations, capital market actors and cities are equipped to support the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity," said Paul Simpson, CDP CEO.
“CDP looks forward to working in partnership with GRI to enable corporate reporting across a broader spectrum of biodiversity issues through CDP’s disclosure platform.”
In June, GRI brought together a group of funders supporting the review of GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016, and a multi-stakeholder technical committee was appointed by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) to lead the development process.
It was also announced last week that GRI and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) have entered into a co-construction process to align a new EU biodiversity reporting standard with the GRI update.
“It is highly significant that GRI will collaborate with both CDP and TNFD, in addition to our co-construction work with EFRAG,” said Judy Kuszewski, GSSB chair.
“I’m confident that we can deliver credible and multi-stakeholder accepted disclosures – which form the basis of the GRI Standards – leading to improved transparency in support of global efforts to safeguard biodiversity.”
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