The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a Policy Statement (PS20/17) and final rules and guidance in relation to climate-related financial disclosures for UK premium listed companies.
Companies will be required to include a statement in their annual financial report which sets out whether their disclosures are consistent with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) June 2017 recommendations, and to explain if they have not done so. The rule will apply for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021.
As well as some additional guidance, the FCA has made only one material change to the rules consulted upon in March 2020 (CP20/03) with the final LR 9.8.6(8)(b)(ii)(C) R requiring non-compliant companies to set out details of how and when they plan to be able to make TCFD-aligned disclosures in the future.
With regard to monitoring compliance with the new listing rule, the FCA confirmed in its Policy Statement that it will provide further information on its supervisory approach to the new rule in a Primary Market Bulletin later in 2021.
In light of this latest regulatory development, issuers may also want to consider what, if any, litigation risks may arise in connection with climate-related disclosures (and indeed other sustainability-related disclosures which are made in response to these regulatory developments). There may be an increased risk of litigation under s90 FSMA, s90A FSMA, or in common law or equity. This was considered in greater detail in our recent Journal of International Banking & Financial Law article (published in October 2020) in which we also examined the existing climate-related disclosure requirements, the impact of the FCA’s proposals on issuers and how issuers can mitigate against such litigation risks.
Our article can be found here: Climate-related disclosures: the new frontier?
For a more detailed analysis of the FCA’s Policy Statement, please see our Corporate Notes blog post.
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