Climate and nature transition planning should be fully integrated

Global Canopy has submitted its response to the UK government’s open consultation on climate-related transition plan requirements, demanding that nature is a part of any transition planning.

The government committed to mandating “UK-regulated financial institutions and FTSE 100 companies to develop and implement credible transition plans that align with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement”. In June, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero opened a public consultation to get feedback on how they can take forward this commitment, and now Global Canopy has responded.

Climate and nature transition planning should be fully integrated

Climate change and nature loss are deeply linked. Deforestation contributes to 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and evidence strongly shows that nature loss – alongside climate change – is triggering and worsening natural disasters.

A policy around integrated climate and nature transition plans would provide a supporting environment for systemic action across key industries and sectors, which is urgently needed to scale up individual organisations’ efforts to tackle deforestation.

We also know that climate solutions can affect nature. For instance, mining for critical minerals can destroy ecosystems, and poorly designed afforestation can worsen wildfire and flooding. That’s why it is so important to integrate nature and climate transition planning for corporates and financial institutions to support the development and disclosure of credible, high-quality transition plans.

Transition plans must be mandatory and transparently published

All financial institutions and companies should be required to develop and publish transition plans as standalone documents. Options allowing entities to explain why they have not disclosed a transition plan or transition plan-related information are insufficient and will be ineffective.

Progress against standalone transition plans should also be reported at a regular frequency. This would facilitate regulatory and public scrutiny, and holding organisations accountable helps share knowledge and ‘ratchet up’ best practice.

Governments and regulators must set clear and specific standards

To ensure the credibility of targets and transition plans, the Government and regulators need to be clear, specific and rooted in the science which establishes what is needed for the ambition to meet real-world climate and nature targets. Clear policy guidance on expectations would support the development and disclosure of credible, high-quality transition plans.

We must – at pace – end activities that are incompatible with global climate and nature goals, such as fossil fuel expansion and deforestation.

A significant body of guidance and best practice, as well as well-developed data tools, already exist to support the development and implementation of nature transition plans – especially when it comes to action on deforestation.

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