Climate

The Aotearoa New Zealand Government’s proposal to professionalise and expand the assurance of climate statements through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Hīkina Whakatutuki (MBIE) and Ministry for the Environment Manaaki I Te Taiao (MfE).

Australian Treasury proposals to empower the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) to make non-mandatory sustainability disclosure standards.

Final exposure drafts from the External Reporting Board’s (XRB) of the Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standard 1: Climate-related Disclosures (CS 1), Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standard 2 (NZ CS 2): First-time Adoption of Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standards (CS 2) and Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standard 3: General Requirements for Climate-related Disclosures (CS 3).

Twenty of Australia’s most influential business and finance peak bodies have come to an unprecedented consensus on the need for sustainability reporting including action on climate risk through a new reporting regime that aims to set a global baseline. The group has welcomed the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) draft sustainability standards in a joint submission which collectively represents the voice of 20 peak professional, industry and investor bodies in Australia who came together to prepare the joint response to the two exposure drafts. The peak bodies together represent more than 400 companies, approximately 300 investors with US$33 trillion assets under management, and 500,000 business and finance professionals. The group considers clear, transparent, comprehensive and comparable disclosure of sustainability-related information to be part of the foundation of a well-functioning global financial system. The group supports a global approach to the development of sustainability disclosure standards and for the ISSB to be the global body to issue these standards. Twenty of Australia’s most influential business and finance peak bodies have come to an unprecedented consensus on the need for sustainability reporting including action on climate risk through a new reporting regime that aims to set a global baseline. The group has welcomed the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) draft sustainability standards in a joint submission which collectively represents the voice of 20 peak professional, industry and investor bodies in Australia who came together to prepare the joint response to the two exposure drafts. The peak bodies together represent more than 400 companies, approximately 300 investors with US$33 trillion assets under management, and 500,000 business and finance professionals. The group considers clear, transparent, comprehensive and comparable disclosure of sustainability-related information to be part of the foundation of a well-functioning global financial system. The group supports a global approach to the development of sustainability disclosure standards and for the ISSB to be the global body to issue these standards. The overarching goal should be a globally consistent, comparable, reliable, and verifiable corporate reporting system to provide all stakeholders with a clear and accurate picture of an organisation’s ability to create sustainable value over time

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.

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

Draft Standard from The External Reporting Board (XRB) to frame how New Zealand investors and large publicly listed companies will disclose their climate change risks, under new laws set to take effect in 2022. Second consultation on Strategy and Metrics and Targets.

In early April, RIAA member and fintech startup Bloom launched Australia’s first climate focused impact investing app, targeting retail investors. RIAA spoke with Bloom’s founder Camille Socquet-Clerc about Bloom.

KPMG Australia and Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) are today launching Human rights and climate change: a guide for institutional investors, highlighting the devastating human rights impacts of climate change and the importance of institutional investors considering these impacts when addressing climate change risk in their portfolios. KPMG/RIAA research indicates that institutional investors are still prioritising environmental impacts over harm to people when addressing climate change risk in their portfolios. Despite increasing attention being paid to ESG, environmental and social risk assessments are often siloed, meaning that climate-related human rights impacts are inadequately addressed. The guide points out that this gap is a risk to institutional investor trustees that must be addressed as an urgent matter of prudent risk management. Richard Boele, Chief Purpose Officer, KPMG Australia, said: “COP26 reinforced that we are at a critical moment. Technological and regulatory shifts are urgently required to achieve decarbonisation and the transition towards a sustainable global economy. For the transition to be made in a way that minimises harm to people, human rights must be at the centre of the response”.

If there is one thing a UN Climate Change Conference always delivers, it is bucketloads of pledges. But if we sift through the various announcements which came out of COP26 in Glasgow, has the needle on the dial shifted on climate action?