IFB researcher, Dr Axel Rossberg of Queen Mary University London, has written an open letter to the Japanese Bankers Association (JBA) responding to its comments on a "Discussion paper on state of nature measurement" published jointly by Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the Science Based Targets Network (SBTN). It proposes how the concerns detailed by JBA can be overcome.
Axel explains that imperfect data is not a sufficient reason to abandon extinction risk as a core TNFD metric. Instead, extinction risk can be measured through a flexible framework in which sophisticated site-level evidence is used where available and scalable modelling fills the gaps. This allows financial institutions to compare biodiversity impacts across portfolios, supply chains, and geographies while progressively improving estimates as better information becomes available. Axel concludes by recommending retaining species extinction risk as a core global disclosure metric, arguing that this gives the financial sector a scientifically and mathematically robust route towards genuinely nature-positive portfolios.
The full letter is available here.