ASIC highlights need for transparency in sustainable finance
In a speech at the RI Australia 2023 conference, ASIC Deputy Chair Karen Chester emphasised the regulator’s focus on sustainable finance and the need to tackle greenwashing with sustainability disclosures.
With climate change a key driver of developments and directions in global capital, Chester highlighted the importance of transparency, driven by sustainability disclosure standards, to underpin market integrity and prevent greenwashing.
Chester outlined three crucial elements that reduce this risk: transparent disclosures that comply with existing laws and global sustainability-related standards, policy initiatives to support comparable, transparent disclosure, and collaboration among regulators.
While sustainable disclosure has been possible, voluntary, in Australia for some time, the Government is now consulting on the introduction of mandatory climate-change related disclosures in line with international best practice under the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). Chester outlines ASIC’s support for both mandatory disclosure in Australia and the work of the ISSB developing a global baseline for sustainability disclosure.
In the global context of emerging adoption of the ISSB standards, ASIC’s commitment to supporting increased transparency and trust in the system emphasises the importance of disclosure standards to achieving fair and efficient green finance markets.
Read the speech here.
