A delegation of representatives from ASFI member organisations travelled to Canberra last week to participate in a day of meetings and events with senior government ministers and officials. Members met with the Hon. Stephen Jones MP to underscore the importance of sustainable finance policy and regulation in supporting Australia’s climate goals, the Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP for a roundtable to discuss challenges, opportunities, and enablers for the nature market and the Government’s broader environmental reform agenda, and senior government officials to discuss the role for private capital in public policy. The day closed with the launch of ASFI’s exciting new partnership with Macdoch Foundation’s Farming for the Future: ‘Valuing Natural Capital’– you can read more about the event here. For more information about the partnership, you can read this article featured in The Australian.

Image: The ASFI delegation at Australian Parliament House.

Last week, ASFI commenced the development phase of the Australian sustainable finance taxonomy with the appointment of the Taxonomy Technical Expert Group (TTEG). Twenty-five senior leaders, endorsed by the Australian Council of Financial Regulators’ Climate Working Group, have been appointed to the independent TTEG. Further detail is available under the ‘Work Program’ section below.

There is just one week left to secure your early bird tickets for the premier event on the Australian sustainable finance calendar – the 2023 Australian Sustainable Finance Summit. Recognising the step-change required in climate action globally, the theme of this year’s highly anticipated Summit is “ambition”. High calibre speakers, expertly curated discussions, and opportunities for deeper engagement will inspire and empower this premier gathering of sustainable finance professionals to be the change we need to see.

ASFI 2023 Work Program

Enabling Sustainable Finance

Sustainable Finance Taxonomy

As highlighted above, ASFI has now commenced the development phase of the the Australian sustainable finance taxonomy with the appointment of the Taxonomy Technical Expert Group (TTEG). More information about the taxonomy’s development is available on our website.
Last month, as the scoping phase of ASFI’s taxonomy work drew to a close, we were pleased to release our final deliverable for this phase: The Australian Taxonomy Transition Methodology Research Paper. The paper identifies 12 key considerations for a taxonomy transition methodology including:
Limiting the scope of the transition category to hard-to-abate sectors only, to encourage the allocation of capital towards the decarbonisation of these sectors
Avoiding carbon lock-in by restricting transition to existing projects only
Sunset dates for all transition activities
Aligning transition criteria with credible international, science-based scenarios, that achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

Natural Capital

ASFI was pleased to host a roundtable with the Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP, where a delegation of representatives had the opportunity to discuss key challenges, opportunities, and enablers needed to unlock understanding of and investment in nature. Key reflections from the delegation on the Government’s environmental reform agenda included: enabling regulation and legislative reforms around nature; the need for robust, reliable and quality data; opportunities for leadership and coordination from Government; and the challenges and collaboration needed to operationalise nature-related disclosures in Australia.
This month, ASFI was excited to launch our exciting new partnership with Macdoch Foundation’s Farming for the Future: ‘Valuing Natural Capital’. The partnership will deliver on the Roadmap recommendations by bringing together Australia’s agricultural producers and financial institutions to integrate natural capital considerations into financial and business decision-making of financial institutions and enable tangible on-farm outcomes using an evidence-based approach. You can read a wrap-up of our launch event here. For more information about the partnership, please visit our website. There is also a fantastic overview of the project available in this article featured in The Australian last week.
We look forward to commencing work with the Natural Capital Advisory Group (NCAG) across the ‘Valuing Natural Capital’ program of work in September. Please reach out to our project manager for natural capital Angelica Del Hierro if you’d like to know more about NCAG membership.

Policy Engagement

ASFI recently submitted our response to the Government’s second consultation paper on its climate-related financial disclosure framework. The Government’s paper built on its February consultation – providing more detail on key aspects of the framework, as well as the forward process for developing detailed disclosure standards. ASFI’s submission is broadly supportive of the positions set out in the consultation paper, including the proposal to align with ISSB standards where possible. We outline some considerations for how the framework would and should apply to financial institutions, and how comparability and quality of reporting can be enhanced. We also make brief comments on some aspects of how the disclosures regime relates to broader policy settings including transition plan guidance, provision and management of data, digitisation, and the Australian sustainable finance taxonomy. Have a read of the full submission here.
As noted above, ASFI was pleased to host a delegation of representatives from ASFI member organisations in Canberra to participate in a day of meetings and events, including roundtables with the Hon. Stephen Jones MP and the Hon. Tanya Plibersek MP. The strong engagement and depth of discussions highlighted the value of direct government-finance sector engagement on sustainable finance to identify areas for collaboration and enable further ambition.

First Nations and Finance

ASFI hosted a Lunch and Learn session for ASFI members in July on how financial institutions are engaging on the Voice. We heard how organisations are supporting their employees through education and building an environment to support respectful conversations, as well as using other levers of influence including advocacy and investee engagement.
Over the past month, we were pleased to hold private screenings of Audrey Napanangka and In My Blood it Runs in Melbourne and Sydney with ASFI members, partners and friends. There were lots of thought-provoking ideas raised in both films, including how Australians can collectively increase our cultural awareness and understanding of the rich and diverse culture of First Nations people and use this to contribute to reconciliation personally, professionally and in collaboration with others.

Sustainable Finance Solutions

ASFI welcomed the release of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) Development Finance Review last week, which considers how development finance can support Australia’s foreign policy, trade, security and development objectives. We support the Review’s recommendation that Australia scale up its development finance mechanisms and strengthen connections with private investors to unlock private finance and investment. Scaling up existing mechanisms is a step in the right direction. But Australia’s ability to support partner countries through development finance remains constrained by our lack of dedicated blended finance capability. Read our full response to the Review here. The full Development Finance Review can be found here.
On July 21 the Government released Australia’s first wellbeing framework, Measuring What Matters. The framework aims to provide a more holistic assessment of Australia’s wellbeing and progress towards national goals. The framework uses 50 indicators that go beyond traditional economic indicators (such as GDP and employment figures) to measure Australia across five wellbeing themes for a society that is healthy, secure, sustainable, cohesive and prosperous. The Australian Sustainable Finance Roadmap recommended the development of a wellbeing framework. We are delighted to see this report released and the inclusion of key environmental indicators such as emissions reduction, biological diversity and climate resilience. It is great to see this first report now released after consultations over the last 12 months. Read the full Measuring What Matters Statement which outlines the framework here.

Finance Sector Leadership

ASFI had the pleasure of hosting the third meeting of our Working Group on Organisational Transformation for Sustainability. This session focused on ‘building a culture of sustainability’ to examine what underpins a culture of sustainability, and how this culture can be fostered to accelerate corporate transformation. We look forward to hosting the final session in October this year.
We are excited to be continuing progress on our sustainable finance capability work, including through the formation of our Sustainable Finance Capability Reference Group (EOIs now closed). You can learn more about our capability work via our website, or stay up to date by following us on LinkedIn (and don’t forget to ‘ring our bell’ to receive ASFI's LinkedIn updates as they happen!).

Events and Opportunities

Events

We welcome your participation in upcoming public events hosted by ASFI. You can also learn about other upcoming industry events via our Sustainable Finance Events Calendar.

August 21, Sydney: IGCC Summit. This unmissable event is for leading investment experts and those working towards a decarbonised economy. The ASFI team looks forward to attending this important event and catching up with others on the day.

October 24, Sydney: Australian Sustainable Finance Summit. The Australian Sustainable Finance Summit will take stock of Australia's progress on sustainable finance over the past 12 months, and explore what ambition and leadership look like across climate, nature and supporting better outcomes for First Nations Australians. Early bird tickets are on sale now for a short time only – don’t miss out!

Job Opportunities

A friendly reminder to subscribe to ASFI’s ‘Sustainable Finance Job Alerts’, where you will receive updates about new opportunities on our Sustainable Finance Jobs Board. If there are job opportunities you would like to advertise to ASFI’s network of sustainable finance, responsible investment and sustainability experts and practitioners, please complete this form.

Current opportunities available:

ASFI Newsletter – August