IFRS Foundation and TNFD formalise collaboration to provide capital markets with high-quality nature-related information

The IFRS Foundation and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) have announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signalling both parties’ commitment to build upon the TNFD recommendations in the ongoing work of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), to enable nature-related financial disclosures for use by capital markets. The ISSB will consider the relevance of the TNFD recommendations in meeting the needs of global capital markets.

The ISSB has been a TNFD Knowledge Partner since the inception of the TNFD in late 2021 and its SASB sector classification, legacy CDSB biodiversity guidance and IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information informed the TNFD recommendations published in September 2023. More recently, the TNFD has been supporting the ISSB’s Biodiversity, Ecosystems and Ecosystem Services (BEES) research project commenced in 2024 and, in February 2025, presented to ISSB members an overview of its work to date to enable further collaboration to be built on a foundation of common understanding.

The MOU signed earlier this week in Frankfurt will deepen the collaboration between the two organisations as the ISSB considers the TNFD recommendations in its research into the needs of global capital markets for information about nature-related risks and opportunities.

Erkki Liikanen, Chair of the IFRS Foundation Trustees, said:

We are delighted to be formalising our partnership with TNFD to ensure that the ISSB gives due consideration to the work TNFD have put into creating recommendations for nature-related financial disclosures. Transparency and accountability are a key means of enabling more stable, resilient and efficient capital markets, and this collaboration will advance the ISSB’s ongoing work to reduce the complexity of the sustainability disclosure landscape, while building on established expertise and practice.

Sue Lloyd, ISSB Vice-Chair, said:

Our collaboration with the TNFD is a clear signal to the market that we are committed to reducing fragmentation in sustainability disclosure while meeting the need for relevant and high-quality information for capital markets. Strengthening the global baseline of sustainability disclosures with nature-related disclosures to meet investors’ information needs, including enhancing the industry-based SASB Standards, is a core focus of our work plan, and this ongoing collaboration and sharing of research and expertise will propel our work forward more effectively. I am grateful to the TNFD for their partnership.

David Craig, Co-Chair of the TNFD, said:

Like the TCFD before us, the TNFD was initiated ahead of specific reporting standards to develop market-based recommendations for decision-useful and practical corporate reporting practices on nature-related aspects beyond GHG emissions. Having engaged thousands of market participants in the development of our recommendations over the past four years from across 50 jurisdictions and with first-generation TNFD reports now published from among the 500 TNFD Adopters, we welcome this deepened collaboration with the ISSB to inform their evolving sustainability reporting standards. One of the objectives of the TNFD is to help achieve Target 15 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and we believe that better disclosures about nature issues, which will result from our collaboration with the ISSB, will support the achievement of that goal.

Razan Al-Mubarak, Co-Chair of the TNFD, President of the IUCN and former COP28 champion, said:

Nature is essential to our economies and our future. Our collaboration with the ISSB is a major step toward making nature visible in businesses reporting and how capital is allocated. Climate-related standards have already moved markets, and we are pleased to continue to support ISSB efforts that bring the rest of nature into global reporting practice. Stronger standards mean stronger businesses—and a healthier, more resilient planet for all of us.

Under the MoU, ISSB and TNFD will share research, knowledge and technical expertise to inform both the ISSB’s BEES initiative and nature-related aspects of its SASB standards enhancement work. Both organisations will further explore joint market engagement and capacity-building initiatives, including with other key partner organisations.

The ISSB’s focus is on meeting the information needs of investors about how companies’ sustainability-related risks and opportunities affect companies’ prospects—more specifically, meeting the common information needs of primary users as defined in ISSB Standards. The ISSB’s research on nature-related disclosures and any related standard setting that follows this research will be subject to the IFRS Foundation’s due process including public consultation on any resulting proposals.

In addition to deepening its collaboration with the ISSB, the TNFD is continuing its global market engagement and capacity-building efforts on nature-related issues, including development and pilot testing of additional guidance for preparers and advancing a range of data-related issues to improve market access to high-quality nature-related data.