Institutional investors increasingly taking their own climate action

Persistent scientific and economic warnings that Australia is on the front line of climate change have fallen on too many deaf ears in Canberra. So it’s only natural that many Australians now hope that this devastating bushfire season will shake our leaders out of their apathy and open the door to a more constructive approach to climate change.

Financial regulators such as the Reserve Bank, ASIC
and APRA have already recognised that climate change
 is a systemic threat to our economy.

Whether this proves the case or not, and whether the recent shift in language on climate ambition by our Prime Minister represents real change or more political management, many investors and businesses are already starting to act.

That’s because when you face fiduciary duties, manage billion-dollar assets, have millions of members and customers and are overseen by climate-aware regulators, treating the hard reality of climate change as a culture war is a luxury you cannot afford.

Increasingly, financial regulators such as the Reserve Bank, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority have already recognised that climate change is a systemic threat to our economy. They are now demanding finance companies treat their exposure to climate change as a "foreseeable, actionable and material risk" and have a plan to deal with it.

Read the opinion piece from The Age by Emma Herd - “Institutional investors increasingly taking their own climate action.”