San José, Costa Rica, 28 September 2026. On 17 September, the Alliance for Climate Action (AAC) and UNDP BIOFIN launched Costa Rica’s National TNFD Consultation Group. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) provides an international framework that guides businesses and financial institutions in disclosing their nature-related risks, dependencies and impacts. Costa Rica thus joins countries preparing their private sectors for emerging global reporting requirements.
The group was established to provide a platform where the private sector can deepen its knowledge and share experiences in implementing these disclosures. To help establish this platform, the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) supported the nomination of the Alliance for Climate Action to serve as the consultation group.
Understanding these risks and dependencies can help businesses and financial institutions factor nature into investment, lending and risk management decisions.
The Alliance has been active since 2021 and brings together partner organizations including Astek, BAC, Banco Nacional, Banco Promérica, the Costa Rican Chamber of Industries, CoopeAnde, Desarrollos Hoteleros Guanacaste, EBI, Empaques Santa Ana, Grupo Purdy, Grupo Empresarial RABSA, MINAE-DCC-IMN-DIGECA and Aliarse. Aliarse also serves as the Alliance’s Technical Secretariat.
Carolina Reyes, Director of Environment and Climate Change at Aliarse and representative of the Alliance for Climate Action’s Technical Secretariat, said:
“Since 2021, the Alliance has demonstrated that coordination among the public, private, financial and cooperative sectors accelerates climate action in Costa Rica. Taking on the role of National TNFD Consultation Group is a decisive step. Businesses and institutions that understand their dependence on nature today will be better prepared to manage their risks, respond to new disclosure requirements and seize the opportunities of a more sustainable economy. We invite more organizations, whether or not they are members of the Alliance, to join this space for collective learning.”
Since 2024, UNDP BIOFIN has also delivered educational activities, webinars, training courses and technical support in Costa Rica to address knowledge gaps in nature-related financial disclosures and help businesses and financial institutions strengthen their management of these risks.
These activities form part of the project “Enabling Scaling Up Nature-Related Financial Disclosures”, implemented in Costa Rica by UNDP with support from the German Government’s International Climate Initiative (IKI).
A financial landscape increasingly incorporating nature
The group’s launch comes at an important moment for the country. Costa Rica has created enabling conditions for businesses and financial institutions to report their climate-related risks, including the adoption of IFRS S1 and S2 as mandatory requirements from 2028.
Costa Rica is also updating its National Biodiversity Strategy in alignment with the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The updated strategy will include targets for private-sector disclosure of nature-related risks, dependencies and impacts.
In addition, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) plans to publish proposed nature-related disclosure requirements drawing on the TNFD framework in October, during the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Strengthening capacity to integrate nature into decision-making
For UNDP, progress in this area requires businesses and financial institutions to have the tools and capacity to understand their relationship with nature and manage the associated risks, dependencies and impacts more comprehensively.
Sandra Sosa, UNDP Resident Representative in Costa Rica, emphasized:
“Integrating nature into business and financial decisions is essential to advancing human development that thrives in harmony with the planet. This means understanding not only the impacts organizations have on ecosystems, but also how much they depend on them and the risks associated with their degradation.
“This alliance will help us move in precisely that direction. Through the National Consultation Group, we will promote technical tools, the exchange of experiences and the collective development of knowledge to advance more sustainable financial management—management that recognizes the value of nature, contributes to its conservation and enables us to better track the positive impacts we generate.”
UNDP BIOFIN’s work falls under the finance solution “Aligning financial flows positively with nature” and aims to help businesses and financial institutions strengthen their nature-related risk management processes.
An open invitation to participate
Membership in Costa Rica’s National TNFD Consultation Group is open to interested institutions and organizations, including those that are not currently partners of the Alliance for Climate Action. Together, the Alliance and UNDP BIOFIN will support a community of practice to advance adoption of the TNFD framework in Costa Rica.