Summary Guiding Principles for Climate and Nature Governance
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GUIDING PRINCIPLE 3
Risk and opportunity
The board oversees material risks, opportunities and
dependencies to protect and enhance stakeholder value. It
considers how climate and nature both shape and are shaped
by the organization’s activities and financial performance.
–Identify and assess climate and nature risks and
opportunities, including those that are indirect,
systemic and fast-evolving, to understand impacts and
dependencies across the value chain and time horizons.
–Use scenario analysis to understand how different
pathways may reshape risk exposure and opportunity
potential, challenging assumptions and exploring tipping
points, dependencies and long-tail risks.
–Balance short-term pressures with long-term resilience,
reframing challenges as opportunities for innovation and
sustainable value creation.GUIDING PRINCIPLE 4
Disclosure and transparency
The board promotes transparency, integrity and accountability
through disclosures that fairly inform investors and stakeholders.
It oversees systems that enable true and fair reporting of how
changes in climate and nature affect financial performance and
long-term prospects.
–Ensure the accuracy, credibility and integrity of climate
and nature disclosures, supported by robust systems,
data and independent verification.
–Align reporting with strategy, commitments and
regulatory expectations, applying consistent metrics and
frameworks that enable stakeholders to benchmark climate
and nature performance over time.
–Promote coherence across all internal and external reporting
and communication, supported by independent assurance.GUIDING PRINCIPLE 2
Strategy
The board oversees systemic integration of material risks and
opportunities into organizational strategy and policy development.
It steers the inclusion of climate- and nature-related considerations
into decision-making to drive long-term value creation.
–Integrate climate and nature into company goals, capital
allocation and performance objectives as key drivers of
strategic transformation that shape risk appetite, adaptability
and competitiveness.
–Test business-model and transition-plan resilience under
multiple scenarios to ensure credible, forward-looking and
accountable strategies that support transformation across
different time horizons.
–Apply foresight and systems thinking to guide goals,
partnerships and investment amid regulatory shifts and
emerging opportunities, ensuring coherent action and value
creation in the short, medium and long term.Three governance foundations
Four guiding principles Skills and
knowledge
The board maintains the skills,
knowledge and mindset to
challenge strategy, oversee risk
and drive sustained value. It applies
understanding of how shifts in
climate and nature affect the
organization, recognizing they present
unprecedented opportunities and risks. Stakeholder
collaboration
The board oversees collaboration with
stakeholders to strengthen resilience and
inform decisions. It guides engagement
with regulators, investors, industry and
communities to build shared solutions
and enhance preparedness for climate
and nature challenges. Culture
The board shapes culture through
purpose and values that enable
curiosity, challenge and foresight.
It signals that climate and nature
are central to strategy, resilience and
long-term value creation.
GUIDING PRINCIPLE 1
Oversight and responsibility
The board is accountable for promoting long-term resilience
and value creation. It oversees systems and processes that
formalize responsibility for the impact of changes to climate
and natural resources on organizations.
–Define and uphold clear board and management
responsibilities for climate and nature by embedding the
topics into board agendas, regular reports and updates on
progress towards targets.
–Align incentives and performance frameworks with
long-term goals and values to seize opportunities and drive
purpose-led performance.
–Regularly review governance structures and board
performance to ensure transparency, resilience and
effective oversight of climate and nature priorities.
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