From Reporting to Resilience: What Climate-Related Financial Disclosures Mean for CFOs and Finance Teams 

Climate risk is increasingly recognised as a core financial and governance issue. Finance leaders have a central role to play in shaping effective, organisation-wide responses to these risks. 

The growing adoption of climate-related financial disclosures, originally under TCFD and now more widely adopted under ISSB, CSRD and local jurisdictions, marks a significant shift across sectors. It reflects the growing understanding that climate change presents material risks to the delivery of services, asset performance, and long-term value for money. 

Many organisations are beginning with what’s most tangible; energy data, emissions baselining, and operational risk mapping. These are important foundations, particularly where robust sustainability and estates functions already exist. But to realise the full value of TCFD, and TCFD adopted standards, disclosures need to be informed by an integrated view of risk, governance, and financial planning, in the short, medium and long-term. 

This is where finance leaders bring critical insight. CFOs and their teams are uniquely positioned to embed climate risk into the core systems that underpin organisational decision-making,  to strategic planning and investment prioritisation. 

Aligning data with decision-making 

Climate-related financial disclosures  go beyond carbon reporting. It asks organisations to understand and disclose how climate risks could affect their ability to deliver objectives over the short, medium and long term. This includes: 

• Assessing both physical and transition risks 
• Embedding climate within organisational audit and risk committees, and assurance frameworks
• Using scenario analysis to support long-term financial planning and business resilience
• Establishing clear oversight and accountability at senior levels

These are familiar areas for finance teams. The opportunity lies in building on existing strengths to bring climate considerations into mainstream governance processes and robustness of data to inform difficult decisions. 

Finance-led integration 

Finance teams across sectors are already adept at navigating uncertainty, whether through multi-year planning cycles, funding variability, or cost pressures. Climate risk presents similar challenges: it cuts across functions, introduces future-facing cost implications, and affects organisational resilience.  

Climate risk frameworks provide a structure to examine these risks in a transparent and consistent way. Finance leaders can help ensure that climate-related risks are not managed in parallel to existing systems, but understood, prioritised and addressed through them. 

Embedding resilience across the organisation 

The organisations making progress are typically the ones enabling cross-functional collaboration. Common characteristics include: 

• Climate risks are considered alongside operational and financial risks 
• Scenario analysis is used to explore exposure to different climate futures and assess organisational resilience 
• Metrics and targets are developed with a clear link to material risks and opportunities 
• Disclosures are supported by clear roles, governance and internal assurance 

In these settings, climate risk standards and frameworks become a practical tool to enhance governance and risk visibility not an isolated compliance task. 

Looking ahead

As climate risks continue to evolve, so too will expectations around transparency and financial accountability. Finance leaders have a critical role to play in ensuring that responses to these risks are credible, coordinated and rooted in sound financial practice. 

The first step is strengthening governance; the foundation of effective climate risk management.  This begins with board and executive-level engagement. Organisations should assess how climate risk is overseen, where responsibilities sit, and whether any capability or oversight gaps need to be addressed. With governance in place, integration into risk management, strategy and planning processes becomes more achievable and more aligned with existing organisational structures. 

Approached in this way,  not simply a reporting obligation,  a mechanism to support strategic clarity, manage uncertainty, and build resilience across any organisation.