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.

Today, the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute hosted an event with Australia’s Treasurer, the Hon. Dr Jim Chalmers MP, where he announced the Government’s plans to strengthen climate risk reporting and develop a sustainable finance strategy. In a demonstration of the Treasurer and finance sector’s willingness to work together to enable the finance sector to better support the climate, environment and social objectives of Australia, industry participants at the event issued a Joint Statement on Accelerating Sustainable Finance.

ASFI is pleased to have supported research led by the Conexus Institute together with FTSE Russell and the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia into the impact of the Your Future Your Super (YFYS) performance test.

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.

The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute welcomes this opportunity to contribute perspectives to the Government’s Review of Development Finance.

ASFI, together with 19 other peak professional, industry and investor bodies in Australia, recently came together to submit a joint response to the proposed ISSB standards on sustainability and climate reporting.