London (AFP)

The G7 countries have taken a big step towards obliging companies to disclose their climate risk, which they consider crucial for the energy transition, even if an agreement remains to be found at the global level and despite the reservations of NGOs.

"We are in favor of the mandatory publication of climate-related financial data, which provides reliable and decision-useful information for market participants," writes the G7 Finance in its press release at the end of its two-day meeting in London.

The mandatory declarations referred to, which include for example CO2 emissions or investment projects, must relate to all large commercial companies.

The objective is to enable them to better assess the financial impact of the climate crisis and to support the green transition of countries that want to be carbon neutral in 2050.

It is also essential for investors who have to finance large groups and who are increasingly concerned about the impact of the climate on companies, whether it is their performance or their reputation.

The G7 says it follows the recommendations of the task force on climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD), set up in 2017 under the aegis of the G20.

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The finance ministers even went further by welcoming the creation of the TNFD (Task-force on nature-related financial disclosures), which no longer concerns only the climate but also nature and biodiversity.

- Pro-nature finance?

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For the WWF France association, it is "an important signal which should make it possible to endow this global initiative with a mandate at the meeting of the heads of state of the G20 next October", evoking the need for "finance pro-nature ".

On climate financial risks, the challenge is for each country to take its responsibilities and impose the measure on its companies, and that there is an agreement in the development of common accounting rules.

The United Kingdom is leading by example since it will force companies to make this impact public from 2025, which makes it the most advanced of the G20 in this area, according to the British government.

This is not yet mandatory at first, however, and companies in the country are only required to publish this data or explain why they do not.

The governor of the Bank of France François Villeroy de Galhau estimated him Wednesday in an interview with the Financial Times that an agreement on a global scale could emerge for the COP26 in Glasgow in November.

"A publication should be compulsory. It is a first step (...) Nobody expected six months ago that we would go so quickly and that we could have a positive conclusion at COP26", declared- it everyday business.

- Exit fossil fuels -

"Having high-quality and comparable data on business climate risks is crucial to meeting carbon neutrality goals," said Chris Cummings, CEO of AI.

For their part, the NGOs warn that the measure alone does not guarantee that the business world will take its part in the energy transition.

"Publications should have been mandatory a long time ago, but at this point in the climate and ecological crisis, the call for better data is a dangerous distraction," said David Barmes of the Positive Money association.

“The markets will not be the saviors,” he warns.

According to him, G7 governments must above all work with central banks and regulators "to really disengage finance from fossil fuels".

NGOs estimated Wednesday in a report that the G7 countries had missed an opportunity to green their economic response to the health crisis, by massively subsidizing polluting sectors, such as air transport, despite their commitments on the climate.

© 2021 AFP