The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published a new rule and guidance promoting better climate-related financial disclosures for UK premium listed commercial companies.

Under the new policy, regulated companies will be required to include a statement in their annual financial report which sets out whether their disclosures are consistent with the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and to explain if they have not done so.

The rule will apply for accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021, meaning the first annual financial reports subject to our rule would then be published in spring 2022.

Along with the policy statement, the FCA issued a technical note clarifying existing disclosure obligations in EU legislation and the FCA Handbook.

A statement read: “In our view, in certain circumstances these disclosure obligations may already require securities issuers to disclose information on climate-related and other environmental, social and governance matters.”

The FCA intends to publish further consultation papers to extend the application of TCFD disclosures in early 2021.

The next steps were recently set out as part of a Roadmap to mandatory TCFD-aligned disclosures, released by a joint government and regulator taskforce in November.

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