Executive summary

Climate change is already affecting the UK, with growing risks to public services, infrastructure and the economy. Significant investment will be required to reduce future damage and costs, as well as to adapt to a climate that has already changed. Parliament and senior decision-makers need clear information on the resilience of government services, infrastructure and finances to climate-related risks, and on how the government is managing those risks.

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HM Treasury (HMT) has introduced climate-related financial disclosures for larger central government bodies’ annual reports, and 2025-26 is the first year that these bodies must publish the impacts, timelines and costs of their significant climate-related risks. Separately, some public corporations and companies (hereafter, ‘companies’) have been required to produce climate-related financial disclosures since 2022. Both requirements are based on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework, with some differences.

This year’s new disclosures reveal a mixed picture of the government’s resilience to climate change. Most central government bodies we reviewed are still at an early stage in understanding and reporting their most important climate risks. However, the best examples of the new disclosures provide concrete insight into the risks that bodies are facing and their potential implications. We expect this reporting to become more useful over time. Companies, who have been reporting for longer, are producing useful information about the resilience of public services to climate change.

As part of our financial audit work, we reviewed the quality of 2025-26 climate-related financial disclosures for 31 of our audited bodies, including 25 bodies reporting under HMT guidance, and six under Companies Act guidance. We assessed each body against the applicable framework. A full list and description of this review is at the end of this report. We chose these because we judged them most likely to be exposed to significant climate-related risk. Through this exercise, we gained insight into:

  • the government’s response to climate-related risks; and
  • the maturity of sustainability reporting across central government.

This report is intended for:

  • Members of Parliament, who may use it to scrutinise how government bodies understand and manage climate-related risks, and what that means for public services, spending and long-term resilience;
  • senior government decision-makers, including board and audit committee members, who may use it to consider whether the information they receive is sufficient to support decisions about risk, resilience and resource allocation; and
  • preparers of climate-related disclosures, who may use it to identify common reporting challenges and areas where disclosure quality can improve.

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Press release

View press release (2 Nov 2026)

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