On Monday September 18, 2023, the first day of Climate Week in New York City, I was privileged to attend the global launch of the recommendations of the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) hosted by the New York Stock Exchange. That morning ImpactAlpha published “From scientific to doomsday, the five climate change narratives shaping discourse and decisions” by Melita Leousi and me. In this piece we describe five ideal type narratives: Scientific, Skeptical, Moral, Opportunity, and Doomsday. The actual narratives of people and groups about climate change combine these ideal types in various ways. We argue that understanding these narratives can facilitate the ability of people who share different views to communicate with each other to solve a common problem. I also think that these narratives are useful ideal types that apply to other global challenges, such as nature and inequality.

Enabling the Materiality Preferences of Preparers | THE TASK FORCE ON NATURE-RELATED FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES

While I had some familiarity with the work of the TNFD, I had not been following it closely and wondered what the narrative of the event would be. In particular, I wondered about the extent to which the Doomsday narrative would be employed. It was. But in contrast to many pushing the Doomsday climate narrative, it was balanced out by a strong sense of a science-based approach and, importantly, of Opportunity.

The TNFD’s narrative is captured in the video “Business, finance and the resilience of nature” which was shown at the beginning of the launch event. It begins with a quote from Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Hank M. Paulson: “Nature’s ability to provide the goods and services on which we depend is being undermined, presenting enormous risks to prosperity.” So clearly a Doomsday start to the event. The video then begins. As images of clouds over trees, a gorilla in a tree, porpoises leaping in the ocean, fish, a toucan, a frog, flowers, a bee, and elephants the woman narrator intones “Nature is a wonder. But it is so much more than wonderful. It is essential to all that we value in life.”

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