Most super funds failing to disclose climate risk

The $2.3 trillion superannuation industry is so woeful in its disclosure of climate risk that trustees could be in breach of their legal duties.

Sixty of the 100 biggest super funds, or three out
 of five, have no disclosure of climate risk at all. 

Sixty of the 100 biggest super funds, or three out of five, have no disclosure of climate risk at all, according to the August report by Market Forces, an affiliate project of environmental group Friends of the Earth.

This includes large players such as retail fund Colonial First State, which represents 2.19 million members and $86.99 billion, and industry fund REST, with 1.96 million members and $41.52 billion under management.

Another 22 funds in the top 100 have inadequate disclosure – defined as a public position that mentions climate change, but fails to back it up with any discussion of how it's being handled in practical terms. Market Forces analyst and report author Daniel Gocher told Fairfax Media it was a "low bar" to be deemed as inadequate and there was a big gap between those making adequate disclosure and the rest.

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by Caitlin Fitzsimmons  - “Most super funds failing to disclose climate risk.”

Clandestine approch to Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) should concern libertarians

W

hat little is publicly known about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) should be of immediate concern for those in the world with libertarian views.

Also, those of us concerned for the state of the world’s environment should be pressing for immediate disclosure of what the agreement really means and how its implementation will impact on the world’s resources and so its environment.

At bottom, the TPP appears to be unashamedly about profit; profit for the world’s corporations ahead of the vastly more important wellbeing of people, wherever they might be.

The TPP is not about the transparency that libertarians love, rather the secrecy upon which profits depend.

Alternet has argued that everything from increased fracking to tainted fish, the TPP could severely threaten environmental and climate policy.

The story - “5 Ways the Trans-Pacific Partnership Could Ruin the Environment” – gives us five reasons why we need to view the TPP with suspicion.