Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative
ASFI plots Australia’s path to zero emissions
The Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative roadmap, published on 24 November, puts forward a plan to align the Australian economy and financial system with outcomes that encourage sustainability, resilience and future prosperity. It sets ambitious targets, including some that stretch beyond federal government goals, and lays out a timeline for achieving them.
Finance and the heavy lifting of sustainable transition
The KangaNews Sustainable Debt Summit 2023 featured its most wide-ranging agenda ever, taking in hot button topics across the sustainable finance landscape. Sessions covered carbon offsetting and trading, the rise of biodiversity as a focus area, the shift from mitigation finance to also include adaptation, as well as a raft of other critical areas of concern.
ASFI hails industry consensus in key milestone for Australian sustainable finance taxonomy
The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute published the final recommendations report for the forthcoming local sustainable finance taxonomy on 27 March, lauding “broad consensus across the finance sector, industry, civil society and real economy actors” on its key design elements. The main evolution of the taxonomy during its design phase is greater demand that the document should be flexible to accommodate future priorities.
15 pointers to taxonomy direction
The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute has laid out core recommendations for the proposed form of an Australian sustainable finance taxonomy. The taxonomy will provide the basis for quantifying climate impact and risk at organisational level, which in turn will lay a foundation stone of a forthcoming mandatory climate risk reporting regime.
Actions speak louder than words
Australia’s requirement for robust sustainable finance measures is now supported by the federal government’s commitment to cut emissions and the global target renewed at COP27. The rules covering deployment of capital, however, are still being written.
Sustainable finance a pace setter for gender diversity
An increasing number of studies link gender diversity with sustainability ambition. In October 2022, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute and KangaNews hosted senior industry leaders to examine this relationship.
