Briefing: task force for climate financial disclosures (TCFD) for the property and construction industry

Abstract

The property and construction industry are known to be a main contributor to climate change contributing more than 40% of the world's emissions. In direct response to this, there has been a call for corporations to be more transparent and align themselves to the requirements of the task force for climate financial disclosures (TCFD). This paper seeks to provide a briefing on the requirements of the TCFD. It highlights common challenges faced by the property and construction industry in implementing TCFD such as the difficulty in integrating climate related risks and translating them into quantitative measures, lack of capability within the industry to understand the complexities of climate risks and data collection issues among others. Recommendations are proposed to address these issues including setting up an industry specific network to share best practices in TCFD, harmonisation of existing frameworks to include TCFD requirements and exploring opportunities for incentivisation and rewards for early movers. This paper will be useful to property and construction industry practitioners who are looking at aligning to the requirements of the TCFD.