Aviva poaches TNFD engagement head to lead its nature strategy

British insurance, wealth and retirement firm Aviva has recruited Thomas Viegas, the former Head of Regulatory engagement at the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), to lead its nature strategy in a newly created role.

Viegas will be tasked with developing the group’s nature strategy and associated activities, “including identifying and assessing nature-related risks and opportunities and setting nature-related targets,” he announced on Linkedin.

He joins from TNFD, the market-led initiative that recently developed a framework for companies to assess and mitigate nature and biodiversity-related risks in their operations and supply chains – and whose recommendations are widely regarded as the basis for corporate nature action.

(More than 300 companies in 46 countries have already signed up to publish nature-related financial disclosures in the next two years using the TNFD framework.)

Aviva nature strategy

LSE-listed Aviva, which reported profits of £1.46 billion in 2023 (up 9% year on year), has already established a biodiversity policy as part of its sustainability work. The policy covers its own operations as well as underwriting and investment activities, and aims to protect and restore biodiversity. It involves collaborating with others to improve measurement, disclosures and action, as well as engaging client companies to help them tackle biodiversity loss.

Aviva is not one of the early adopters of the TNFD recommendations, but according to a job listing for the Nature Strategy Lead, part of Viegas’ responsibilities will be to “support the assessment and adoption of new models, modelling methodologies and frameworks” such as IPR FPS + Nature developed under the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, and TNFD Scenario Analysis.

Growing focus on nature risks 

Investors are increasingly interested in assessing nature-related risks within their portfolios: Fidelity International, for example, announced its first nature roadmap in November and plans to release its first nature-related disclosures by 2025.

As a result of this growing focus, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which is behind some of the most widely used climate disclosure standards, has begun to analyse the potential to develop specific disclosure standards for biodiversity and nature, as well as human capital.