The past year has seen some of the fastest momentum in the development of sustainable finance. This Annual Report highlights the focus ASFI has put into capitalising on this moment of opportunity, and the success we have achieved in working together with our members and other partners to advance our mission.

Over the past year, ASFI has continued to establish and strengthen partnerships across the financial system to drive the ambition and change needed to achieve our collective sustainability goals, and today we are delighted to share our annual strategy and business plan for 2024.

ASFI in collaboration with the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) have prepared this resource setting out the relationship between decarbonisation scenarios, pathways, plans, and the taxonomy.

ASFI has today published two methodology papers as we take a further step towards the development of Australia’s sustainable finance taxonomy.

ASFI in partnership with Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) have today released a practical guide to help demystify sustainable finance and its application for the real estate and finance sectors.

On 2 November 2023, the Australian Treasury released its much-anticipated Sustainable Finance Strategy Consultation Paper. This follows the commitment by the Australian Treasurer in December 2022 to develop an ‘ambitious and coordinated’ sustainable finance strategy in 2023.

On 24 October 2023, at a sold-out summit, over 350 attendees from across finance, business, government, civil society, and academia came together to unpack this year’s theme; ‘driving ambition: Australia’s time to lead’.

ASFI is delighted to launch our 2023 Australian Sustainable Finance Progress Tracker. This is our third annual report on progress towards implementing the Australian Sustainable Finance Roadmap.

After two years of iterative development, on 18 September 2023, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) published its final (v1.0) recommendations for nature-related risk management and disclosure. Read our “ASFI explainer” for the final recommendations.

This report identifies key considerations to inform the methodology for integrating transition activities in an Australian taxonomy. The report’s findings were informed by and adapted from the most advanced transition methodologies currently under development internationally, as well as international best practice on transition financing and disclosures.

Today, we are pleased to have published our 2023 Mid-Year Report, which reflects on the work and progress we have achieved over the past 6 months and provides an outlook of our priority areas for the remainder of the year.

On 23 February, ASFI with the support of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Climate-KIC, Energy Efficiency Council, Green Building Council of Australia, and Race for 2030 convened a workshop on Finance for Home Retrofits. Read our report on the workshop outcomes.

This report provides recommendations on the core design elements for an Australian taxonomy. Through a public consultation process that helped inform the report, ASFI found there is broad consensus on the core design elements of an Australian taxonomy, including in relation to credibility; usability; interoperability; and prioritisation and impact. Consultation also revealed strong support for the inclusion of a transition category in an Australian taxonomy.

Read ASFI’s July 2021 - December 2022 Annual Report.

This paper provides recommendations on the design of an Australian sustainable finance taxonomy, and the roadmap and timeline for its immediate development. The paper is informed by stakeholder consultation, the Australian economic and environmental context and insights gained through the development of the taxonomy project’s Scoping paper of international taxonomies.

This is the second report on implementation of the Roadmap. It shows progress has been made against a broad range of Roadmap recommendations, with some standout achievements including the establishment in 2021 of the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI) as a permanent body to coordinate and drive Roadmap implementation.

This report compares taxonomy frameworks used in 13 jurisdictions internationally with similar economic compositions and needs to Australia, and identifies lessons to inform the development of an Australian taxonomy.