The gold standard for climate transition plans takes shape

30th March 2023


The UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT) was launched in 2022 to develop a ‘gold standard’ for private sector climate transition plans, and it has moved at speed to deliver on this. The Disclosure Framework and Implementation Guidance have already been written and put out for consultation.

IEMA participated in the consultation, holding a workshop to listen to members’ views. Members suggested that transition plans should include mapping organisational green skills, and a strategy to address any gaps.

The Disclosure Framework either matches or goes further than the existing Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures requirements and the soon-to-be-launched International Sustainability Standards Board obligations, and the guidance is clear and easy to follow. The TPT is also accommodating on lead times, acknowledging the complexities facing businesses in preparing plans.

The TPT has declared a goal to support better-informed decisions about how to allocate capital, in turn supporting the UK’s transition to net zero. Success in this will largely depend on two things.

First, climate crises notwithstanding, business allocates capital based on a judgement on risk and return. If the risk of not supporting the transition to net zero has an attractive enough price, business will take that risk. It is ultimately up to regulators to create an environment in which the risk is too high at any price.

Second, transition plan-based financial decisions will be based on promises on long-term forward plans. These will only be better informed if the governance stage of monitoring, auditing and reporting is robust and trustworthy. Otherwise, the transition plan will be worthless at best and at worst a potentially illegal misrepresentation of the company’s position to investors.

The financial sector appears to be fully behind the transition planning requirements, and boards seem ready to listen to their recommendations. While transition plans can provide a detailed map of the way forward, we will need the regulators to provide the compass.

Image credit: Shutterstock


Transform articles

Turning the tide on inequality

Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, talks to Chris Seekings about how inequality is destroying the planet, and what we can do about it.

1st June 2023

Read more

Extinction Rebellion has promised to step up protests and civil disobedience after a list of its demands for the UK government fell on deaf ears in April. Will this help or hinder the cause, asks Chris Seekings

1st June 2023

Read more

While technology exists to enable economic growth without destroying the planet, we can’t rely on it as the sole solution to climate catastrophe, says Tom Pashby

31st May 2023

Read more

The Climate Change Act 2008 put in place the Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP), which has now been going for three rounds, in five-year cycles.

31st May 2023

Read more

Around a third of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions arise from sectors that are directly shaped or influenced by local authorities.

31st May 2023

Read more

Green technologies can replace Russian natural gas by 2028, according to a study by the University of Oxford.

31st May 2023

Read more

A quarter of large and medium-sized companies in Great Britain have hidden their sustainability credentials – also known as ‘greenhushing’ – over the last 12 months, new research suggests.

24th May 2023

Read more

The number of people exposed to dangerously hot temperatures will increase from around 60 million today to two billion by 2100 under current climate policies, a new study has found.

23rd May 2023

Read more

Media enquires

Looking for an expert to speak at an event or comment on an item in the news?

Find an expert