Reporting on climate-related risks and opportunities – Status quo and recommendations

Abstract

The pressure on companies from investors and other stakeholders to address climate change keeps increasing. On the one hand companies play a major part in the realisation of climate targets; on the other hand, many face significant climate risks. Hence it becomes a necessity to incorporate climate-related risks in their risk management procedures and their external reporting. However, reporting on climate-related risks and opportunities and especially their impact on financial statements is still in its infancy as companies struggle to follow the TCFD recommendations and define the interrelation between nonfinancial and financial performance. This is revealed by the latest PwC study on climate-related disclosure in Austrian companies’ annual reports. The authors present the results of the study and provide guidance on how to define and incorporate the respective interrelations on climate-related risks and opportunities.