Ramboll assists Port of Newcastle as the first Australian port to commit to publishing its Nature-related Financial Disclosures

The TNFD has developed a set of disclosure recommendations that enable businesses to assess, act and report on their nature-related dependencies, impacts, risks and opportunities. Participation in the regime is currently voluntary and ties in with the imminent establishment of Australia’s Nature Repair Market and mandatory Climate Disclosure Standards.

PON is the first port in Australia to make a public commitment as one of an initial group of 320 early adopters of TNFD worldwide.

Sustainability Advantage is the New South Wales (NSW) Government’s support program partnering with large and medium organisations to raise ambition and accelerate action to achieve a sustainable transition for NSW. As a member of Sustainability Advantage, PON together with Sustainability Advantage, worked with Ramboll on this sector-leading initiative.

Clinton Rakich, Ramboll’s Sustainability Lead for Australia, said: "We are excited to support PON on the journey as an early adopter of the TNFD framework. We are seeing infrastructure owners taking a more active role in environmental management, particularly nature-dependent businesses such as ports. This is a major opportunity, which is why PON is on the front foot”.

Biodiversity loss has been identified by the World Economic Forum as one of the most severe global risks and there is an increasing need for businesses to place greater value on protecting and restoring biodiversity, which has not been historically present in reporting frameworks. The Global Biodiversity Framework has set a target of US$200B per year global spend on nature repair by 2030.

“A similar cycle is commencing now as when we first started to address business impacts on climate through carbon emissions. We didn't really get a sense of the magnitude of the problem at the beginning, and similarly when it comes to nature and biodiversity impacts, we’re only now just starting to uncover the issues, which will only get bigger over time if not addressed quickly,” Mr Rakich said.

Ports in Australia can have impact on the natural environment due to their location and large geographical footprint. They are generally located in areas once considered to have low development value, such as estuaries, swamps, and wetlands, but which now have a very high conservation and biodiversity value.

Celia Tesoriero, Manager of Sustainability Advantage said: “PON has been a member of Sustainability Advantage since 2009 and has most recently been recognised as one of our Gold Partners. We have been privileged to support them in their sector-leading work around net zero emissions and the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). We look forward to continuing working with PON on this leading nature project”.

“It is important for all companies to start considering how their operations and value chains interface with nature. Companies, both listed and unlisted, should expect increasing scrutiny and regulation to address acute and chronic impacts on nature and the ecosystem services on which we all depend, such as water purification, thermal regulation and crop pollination,” Mr Rakich said.

He said it is particularly complex to measure biodiversity impacts from ports because of the marine environment they operate in, which is largely under water, and also includes surrounding sensitive sites in tidal flats, estuaries and internationally recognised wetlands that are essential for migratory birds and other threatened species.

“Ports have specific challenges that they are managing such as contamination from pollutants and the risk of exotic species brought into ports through shipping,” Mr Rakich said.

“For PON, we are moving through the TNFD journey to locate nature interfaces that are critical to the business and surrounding community.”

The TNFD recommendations build on the TCFD recommendations, which will become mandatory in Australia in 2024, and are consistent with the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) and Global Reporting Initiative standards.

“Companies are becoming more proactive when it comes to TNFD because just like TCFD, which is moving from a voluntary to a mandatory regulatory framework, it can take time to understand climate-related business impacts and how to address them. Nature-related risks are even more complex so it is great to see businesses like PON getting a head start,” Mr Rakich said.