Climate-related financial disclosure and the property and construction sector

Abstract

Businesses around the world are being asked to be more open about climate-change risks by adopting the best-practice guidelines of the international Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures. The property and construction sector contributes more than 40% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, yet not much is known about how these companies are addressing climate-change risk. Research was undertaken to address this gap by developing a system for assessing alignment with the task force guidelines, analysing the barriers for adopting the guidelines and providing recommendations for overcoming these barriers. Findings show that property and construction companies in countries such as Malaysia tend to fall into the ‘laggard’ group. There is also variation in the carbon dioxide metrics disclosed by companies, which makes comparison difficult. Some of the proposed recommendations to address them include forming an industry-specific network to share best practices, appointing a focal point by region to facilitate training and an international coordinated effort to harmonise existing tools relating to carbon dioxide reporting.