The Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is an initiative aimed at helping businesses understand the relationship between their activities and nature, and to voluntarily adopt principles and practices that will guide their investments into options that are not only not harmful to the natural environment but also contribute positively to it. The initiative was founded in 2021 by four partners (Global Canopy, United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Environment Program Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI), WWF) and is now supported by governments, businesses, and financial institutions around the world.
The drafting and publication of guidelines with recommendations for various sectors and types of businesses is one of the most important tools provided by the TNFD in this direction.
Recently, draft guidelines with recommendations for the shipping, fisheries, and water infrastructure sectors were put out for public consultation.
The Green Tank participated in the public consultation with two distinct submissions of comments:
- The Green Tank, together with the partners in the Interreg Euro-MED ARTEMIS project, participated in the consultation by submitting comments and proposals, with the main goal of strengthening the recognition of seagrass meadows, particularly Posidonia, by the relevant business sectors. The ARTEMIS team, leveraging its experience from the project, submitted a series of targeted proposals urging businesses, especially in the shipping and fisheries sectors, to consider Posidonia when assessing their activities and their impact, and to integrate policies and practices that will contribute to the protection and restoration of Posidonia.
The comments were submitted on April 6, 2025. You can read them here. It should be noted that the comments reflect the majority of the project partners and are not in any way binding for all the collaborating parties.
- The Green Tank, together with OceanCare, participated in the consultation on the shipping sector guidelines by highlighting through comments and proposals how the protection of cetaceans can be better integrated. They specifically focused on the threat of underwater noise and ship strikes with large marine mammals, proposing mitigation measures that can be adopted by the sector. Among these, they also mentioned the pioneering contribution of the SAvE Whales project, an innovative system that locates the exact position of sperm whales up to 7 kilometers away and transmits real-time information to ship crews to inform them to slow down or adjust their course to avoid collisions. The system is being developed in Greece with the goal of being implemented in 2028 in the Kythira Strait, where other mitigation measures, such as rerouting, are not feasible.
The comments were submitted on April 4, 2025. You can read them here.