The initial membership of ASFI’s steering committee is 18-strong, supplemented by two observers (see table). ASFI describes this list as an “unprecedented collaboration” in Australia, featuring as it does the input of major banks, superannuation funds, insurance companies, financial-sector peak bodies, civil society and academia.

ASFI is modelled on what it calls international best practice, that has been established through the formation of groups including the EU’s High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance and the UK’s Green Finance Taskforce.

The primary goal ASFI has set itself is to develop a roadmap including pathways, policy signals and frameworks that will better enable Australia’s financial-services sector to contribute to delivering the country’s international commitments while underpinning national economic stability and prosperity. The commitments include the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

ASFI says there is a “critical decade” ahead for transition to sustainable economic growth, and it has given itself a 2020 deadline to deliver the sustainable-finance roadmap. The roadmap will seek to achieve four goals. The first is to mobilise capital to deliver on national and global sustainable-development and climate goals.

The second is to enhance the sustainability, resilience and stability of the financial system by embedding sustainability, climate and human-rights considerations into financial markets and products.

The third is to ensure better-informed financial decision-making by enhancing disclosures and transparency on environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities.

Finally, the roadmap aims to deliver a financial system that meets community expectations around sustainability.

Jacki Johnson, group executive – people, performance and reputation at IAG and co-chair of ASFI, says: “Australia has made a number of commitments to international targets. Achieving these goals extends beyond social or environmental objectives – it’s an economic and financial necessity. Our economy simply cannot prosper in an environment of ever-increasing severe weather events and the subsequent broader impacts these will have.”

Source: Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative 27 March 2019