TNFD releases LEAP 2.0, first update to nature risk guidance

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures has released LEAP 2.0, the first upgrade to the assessment approach it gives companies for reporting nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities, ESG Today reported on October 13.

The update adds guidance for assessing financial institutions' portfolios, environmental crime, nature in transition planning and measurement of invasive alien species, and broadens assessment of nature-related risks and opportunities.

State-of-nature measurement is also expanded to support evaluation of dependencies and impacts, and the approach incorporates the State of Nature Indicators and Metrics released by the Nature Positive Initiative.

LEAP walks organizations through four phases: Locate, Evaluate, Assess and Prepare.

More than 1,000 organizations across 56 countries have published disclosures aligned with the TNFD's recommendations to date, according to the report.

The taskforce launched in 2021 and published its final recommendations, with the original LEAP approach, in September 2023.

The release is one of the last major technical work projects for the TNFD, which said last year it would end its technical work program in late 2026.

That decision followed plans by the IFRS Foundation's International Sustainability Standards Board to begin standard setting on nature-related risks and opportunities.

The ISSB has said its nature work will draw on the LEAP approach, and the TNFD has indicated it will contribute to an ISO standard based on LEAP 2.0.

London's final UK rules already extend comply-or-explain treatment to ISSB-aligned standards for accounting periods starting January 1, 2027, as this publication reported.

The TNFD's recommendations are voluntary, while the ISSB writes standards that jurisdictions can then adopt.

LEAP 2.0 was released ahead of the COP 17 UN biodiversity conference, alongside updated science-based nature target setting methods from the Science Based Targets Network.