An organisation that promotes innovative leadership towards a resilient and sustainable economic future has called on Australian businesses to consider climate change in their dealings and to come clean to investors on climate risks.
Tom Quinn, Future Business Council (FBC) CEO, said companies can and should inform investors about their climate risks to be able to capitalise on what is promising to be the next boom.
"Investors are looking for clean, low carbon products and are getting out of fossil fuels at a pace unimaginable even 18 months ago,” he said.
"The writing is on the wall for companies and countries that are dependent on fossil fuels. Divestment combined with class actions against directors for failing to consider climate change and the low carbon economy are accelerating.
"Companies that are failing to disclose their exposure to climate and carbon risks will be the first to bear the brunt of investors’ dissatisfaction.”
The FBC statement comes following the release of a set of recommendations set by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
The global taskforce advised companies to disclose how they identify, assess, and manage climate risks and opportunities, as well as how climate risks impact their business, strategy, and financial planning.
Only months before, FBC and Centre for Policy Development (CPD) released a legal opinion on fiduciary duties of Australian business directors with regards to climate change. The opinion determined that directors have an obligation to “perceive, disclose, or take steps in relation to a foreseeable climate-related risk that can be demonstrated to have caused harm to a company,” FBC said in a statement.
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