The Financial Services Council (FSC) has welcomed the government’s release of the Sustainable Finance Roadmap.
This new initiative aims to provide greater confidence and certainty for investors managing climate-related investment risks and opportunities while bringing sustainability-related investment products to market.
Blake Briggs (pictured above), CEO of the FSC, stressed the important role of the investment community in Australia’s transition towards a net-zero carbon economy.
“The investment community has an important role in assisting Australia’s transition towards a net-zero carbon economy and we support the government’s sustainability goals,” Briggs said.
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“The government’s commitment to establish consistent labels and disclosure requirements for investment products marketed as sustainable will help to address regulatory uncertainty,” Briggs said. “It will benefit consumers and combat greenwashing by providing common understanding about sustainability-related terms and labels.”
The sustainable finance roadmap is expected to enable investment product issuers to meet the growing demand for sustainability-themed products.
“It will also enable investment product issuers to more confidently meet the growing demand of Australians to invest in line with their sustainability and ethical values by bringing more sustainability-themed products to market, encouraging increased flows to sustainable investments,” Briggs said.
Briggs said the council looks forward to collaborating with the government on a labelling regime for better understanding and recognition of various ESG or sustainability-related investment strategies by funds.
On the topic of climate-related financial disclosures, Briggs expressed support for the roadmap’s implementation timeframes.
“The FSC is supportive of the timeframes outlined in the roadmap for the implementation of climate-related financial disclosures.”
She stressed the importance of passing the climate-related financial disclosures bill promptly to keep Australia an attractive destination for capital.
“Passage of the bill will mean Australian businesses can get on with the important task of tackling the challenge of climate risk, and investors can have access sooner to important data that will help in pricing the risk and opportunities of climate change to investments, and therefore lead to more efficient allocation of capital toward investments that are in the best financial interests of fund members,” Briggs said.
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