Events & News

A wide cross-section of business, investor and conservation groups have come together to support the passage of the Climate Change Bill as an important step towards the greater climate policy certainty needed to support investment in the transition to a low-carbon economy. The lack of a settled national policy has consistently been cited as a key inhibitor to the effective management of climate change risk by investors, directors and other business leaders. There is bipartisan and broad community and business support for achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The Government legislating a 2030 target of at least a 43 percent emissions reduction under the Paris Agreement establishes some much-needed policy certainty. Importantly the legislation includes a process for advice and adoption of deeper targets over time. It also provides clarity to investors and the business community more broadly, given all nations have committed under the Paris Agreement to only strengthen their stated contributions. The group considers legislating a national 2030 emissions reduction target to be a timely signal to the market of the Government’s ambition, and further encouragement to Australian organisations to progress their own decarbonisation plans. Australian organisations need to remain internationally competitive to support our nation’s high living standards.

Today’s dire State of the Environment report should raise alarm bells to the Australian business and finance sectors, as the nation moves into further debt to nature, with deteriorating indicators across most measures. The health of Australia’s natural environment is becoming a material financial risk and proxy for the state of our economy, given the significant interdependencies between the two: from agricultural industries to resources, from tourism to property, right through to financing and insurance. The 2021 State of the Environment report shows the past five years have seen an alarming rise in threatened species, land clearing, extreme weather events, and destruction of Indigenous heritage, and that environmental decline is damaging human health and wellbeing. “For too long, nature has been relegated and seen as something out there beyond our cities, a place we visit only on holidays, or space that is preserved in our national parks,” said Estelle Parker, Executive Manager of Programs at the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA).

RIAA's response to the AASB Exposure Draft 321, on the Australian implementation of the ISSB’s [Draft] IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related and Financial Information and [Draft] IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures (draft ISSB Standards).

The Australian Senate sought submissions into the application of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

RIAA and a coalition of industry groups support the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) proposal for a global baseline for sustainability disclosures standards.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) sought comment on its draft climate-related disclosures standard.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) sought comment on its draft general sustainability-related financial disclosures standard.

The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) consulted on how the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) proposed sustainability standards should be implemented in Australia.

Excluding defence companies has long been common practice for responsible investors. At a minimum, most negatively screened ‘ethical’ funds exclude the controversial weapons banned under international law: for example, chemical weapons and cluster bombs.

Following the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute’s (ASFI) Roadmap in 2020 and appointment of a board and executive in 2021, the Institute recently laid out its 2022 priorities – first off the blocks is tackling a sustainable finance taxonomy for Australia. RIAA spoke with ASFI’s chief executive Kristy Graham about plans and progress on the Institute’s taxonomy work.