The Hon. Jim Chalmers, Treasurer, Media Release, 12 January 2024

The Albanese Government has released draft legislation for significant reforms that will help Australia maximise the economic opportunities of cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy and manage climate change risks.

Our changes will establish Australia’s climate risk disclosure framework, giving investors and companies the transparency, clarity and certainty they need to invest in new opportunities as part of the net zero transformation.

The draft legislation amends the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act 2001 and the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to introduce standardised, internationally-aligned reporting requirements for businesses, to ensure they are making high quality climate-related financial disclosures.

This is an important step for improving transparency and will help investors and companies make more informed investment decisions and lay the foundation for a stronger, more robust financial system.

The Government is taking a balanced approach with these changes following extensive consultation with industry, investors, academics and regulators.

The draft legislation gives companies the opportunity to build capacity to make high quality climate risk disclosures by providing early visibility of the proposed reporting requirements and expand the breadth of entities required to report over time.

Consultation for the draft legislation released today [12 January 2024] is now open and submissions will close 9 February 2024.

The Albanese Government is responding to the challenge of climate change and maximising the economic opportunities from cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy.

For more information on the public consultation process, visit the Treasury website. Submissions can be made to ClimateReportingConsultation@Treasury.gov.au