The TCFD completed its work and disbanded in October 2023, with the IFRS Foundation taking over the relevant monitoring responsibilities. IFRS S2 fully incorporates TCFD's four pillars: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. This article explains their relationship and the phased adoption timeline for Taiwan's TWSE/TPEx-listed companies.
What to decide after reading If you came for IFRS, SASB, TCFD, GRI, or ESG reporting requirements, the next step is to turn disclosure items into data collection, section assignments, and review workflows.
Table of Contents
Updated on October 6, 2026. This update specifies the month TCFD disbanded and its transition to IFRS S2, distinguishing the framework overview from the application of risks and opportunities.
This article introduces TCFD and its four core elements. For practical applications of risks and opportunities, see TCFD Climate Risks, Opportunities and Financial Impacts. TCFD disbanded in October 2023, and its recommendations have been carried forward by IFRS S2. Further reading: IFRS S1/S2 Standards and Taiwan Adoption Q&A. Official source: IFRS Foundation: ISSB and TCFD.
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TCFD Has Completed Its Work. How Should Companies Transition to IFRS S2?
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) was established by the Financial Stability Board in 2015 to help companies explain climate risks, opportunities and financial impacts to investors. The task force completed its work and disbanded in October 2023. The IFRS Foundation assumed responsibility for monitoring progress on adoption from 2024.
This does not mean that TCFD's content is obsolete. IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures fully incorporates the TCFD recommendations. The governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets that companies developed under TCFD remain the foundation for adopting IFRS S2.
The Relationship between TCFD and IFRS S2
TCFD provides an investor-focused framework for climate-related financial disclosures. IFRS S2 develops that framework into a climate disclosure standard that connects with general purpose financial reporting. Both organise information around four pillars, but companies adopting IFRS S2 also need to consider materiality, reporting boundaries, comparative information and connections with financial reporting.
To understand transition risks, physical risks, climate opportunities and financial impacts, read TCFD Risks, Opportunities and Practical Corporate Examples.
IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Adoption Timeline for Taiwan's Listed Companies
Taiwan is phasing in IFRS S1 and IFRS S2. Companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) or Taipei Exchange (TPEx) with paid-in capital of NT$10 billion or more must apply the standards from financial year 2026; those with NT$5 billion or more but less than NT$10 billion start from financial year 2027; all remaining TWSE/TPEx-listed companies start from financial year 2028.
In practice, companies should do more than rename their existing TCFD section. First confirm the applicable year and reporting boundaries, then identify the owners, periods and review trails for data on board oversight, climate risk assessments, scenario analysis, greenhouse gas emissions and targets.
Why Are the Four Pillars Still Worth Understanding?
TCFD's governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets remain the core structure of IFRS S2 climate disclosures. Understanding these four categories helps companies turn climate issues from public relations narratives into management information that can be governed, tracked and linked to financial impacts.
TCFD's four pillars: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.
TCFD's Four Core Elements
To help investors and other stakeholders understand how reporting organisations assess climate-related risks and opportunities, the task force proposed four core elements as a reporting framework:
Governance: Whether the organisation gives climate issues due attention and how it manages climate-related risks and opportunities, including board oversight and management assessment and decision-making. For example, Nan Shan Life Insurance's 2020 Sustainability Report identifies the board as the highest authority responsible for climate-related risk management. Its Risk Management Committee and Corporate Sustainability Committee are respectively responsible for regularly overseeing the implementation of work on climate-related risks and opportunities.
▾ Risk management structure disclosed in Nan Shan Life Insurance's 2020 Sustainability Report
Strategy: Investors and other stakeholders can understand how climate issues affect the organisation's business, policies and financial planning over the short term (within 1 year), medium term (1–11 years) and long term (11–81 years), supporting forecasts of future performance. For example, the climate change management strategy in AcBel Polytech's 2020 Sustainability Report identifies and explains climate risks and opportunities with medium to high critical impacts on the organisation. It covers relevant transition risks, physical risks, resource use opportunities, product and service opportunities, and energy sourcing opportunities, together with their time horizons, value chain impacts, financial impacts and response measures.
▾ Climate risks, opportunities and response strategies in AcBel Polytech's 2020 Sustainability Report; only selected screenshots are shown here for reference.
Risk Management: Investors and other stakeholders need to understand how the organisation identifies, assesses and manages climate-related risks—for example, how climate risks are integrated into existing risk management processes—to evaluate its overall risk profile and management activities. Nan Shan Life Insurance's 2020 Sustainability Report, for instance, explains that its board first sets risk appetite, followed by the Risk Committee setting risk limits. Risk management tools are then used to monitor changes in key risks regularly, including climate-related risks.
Metrics and Targets: Investors and other stakeholders need to understand how the organisation measures and monitors climate-related risks and opportunities. This enables more effective assessment of potential risk-adjusted returns, its ability to meet financial obligations, climate-related exposure, and progress in managing and adapting to risk, as well as comparisons between organisations or industry peers. For example, the climate change metrics and targets in AcBel Polytech's 2020 Sustainability Report include greenhouse gas emissions and intensity, energy and resource use, and green procurement as measures of climate risk impacts. The company also applies SBTi methodology to set greenhouse gas reduction targets for Scopes 1 through 3.
▾ Climate change metrics and targets in AcBel Polytech's 2020 Sustainability Report.
What Should Companies Do Next?
If your company already makes TCFD disclosures, map the existing content to IFRS S2 and identify gaps in financial connections, comparative information, data boundaries and traceable evidence. If climate disclosure has not yet been established, use the four pillars as a framework and identify the responsible teams, data sources, review workflows and completion dates for each.
Official resources:
FAQ
View AllWhen was TCFD established?
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) was established in 2015 by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to respond to climate change and the Paris Agreement by providing recommendations for disclosing climate-related risks and opportunities.
How many Taiwanese companies support TCFD to date?
To date, more than 90 Taiwanese companies support TCFD, including TSMC, Cathay Financial Holdings, China Airlines and Evergreen Marine, demonstrating its importance to Taiwan's business community.
What proportion of Taiwanese companies reference TCFD in their sustainability reports?
According to the survey on the status and trends of sustainability reporting in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region, approximately 231 Taiwanese companies addressed TCFD in sustainability reports published in 2020, accounting for more than one-third of companies publishing sustainability reports.
Turn Sustainability Disclosure into a Collaborative Workflow
Use Syber to manage section ownership, metric data, review records, and disclosure progress, turning IFRS, SASB, and GRI requirements into a team workflow.
How to decide the next stepTurn the disclosure requirements in the article into sections, data sources, and owners first. If collaboration, version control, or verification is involved, then evaluate whether a reporting workflow is needed.