The Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) is one of the first investors to have published a report in accordance with the Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations.

”We wanted to start reporting as soon as possible, both for the sake of our own learning but also because we want to know what we are talking about when we engage in dialogues with companies. We also hope our report can inspire others. It remains to be seen how widely the framework will spread among other asset owner and asset managers but generally speaking, there is very strong support for the TCFD recommendations,” says Christina Olivecrona, senior sustainability analyst at AP2.

At the end of 2015, the Financial Stability Board established a task force, TCFD, to draw up a set of disclosure recommendations which would help actors in the financial markets to understand their climate-related risks and opportunities. The TCFD framework is voluntary and applicable to all types of organisations. The TCFD recommends that disclosure reports should describe: 1) how climate-related issues are handled by the organisation’s governing organs (board and executive management team), 2) what strategy the organisation has regarding climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy, 3) the organisation’s climate risks and opportunities, and 4) the metrics and targets used by the organisation.

”We are positive to the TCFD framework since it will increase the transparency of companies and hopefully provide investors with the information they need to assess a company’s climate risks and opportunities. The framework is also an important tool for our own activities since it provides a structured way of describing and communicating the Fund’s climate work,” says Christina Olivecrona.

In the autumn of 2017, AP2 started implementing the TCFD recommendations. AP2 has used the suggestions given in the TCFD recommendations to analyse its climate work, both with regard to industries generally and the specific guidance given to asset owners.

”The purpose of our efforts in 2017 was to improve information acquisition and describe our current climate management in the way prescribed by the framework. Our TCFD report describes the Fund’s climate management in the way set out in the framework and it gives examples of potential ways for us to develop our work regarding climate-related risks and opportunities,” says Christina Olivecrona.

Read the report here.

For further details, please contact Christina Olivecrona, Senior Sustainability Analyst at AP2, +46 31 704 29 00, or Ulrika Danielson, Head of Corporate Communications, on +46 31 704 29 29.