Some of Australia's largest institutions have been labelled "hypocritical" by the Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP) after rejecting the proposed disclosure framework on climate change risk management.
In July this year, AODP presented proposals to global investor groups, including the Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) for Australia and New Zealand, to create an independent framework on how the asset owners manage climate risk.
IGCC, along with its European and USA counterparts, has rejected the proposal.
"How is it other than hypocritical for these groups to demand independent disclosure of the companies they invest in, but when it comes to their own transparency, to want to play by a different set of rules?" said AODP chairman and former leader of the Liberal Party, Dr John Hewson.
"These are the same groups that have been working with the successful and important Carbon Disclosure Project that seeks independently managed disclosure from companies on similar issues," Hewson said.
Some of Australia's largest institutions are members of IGCC, including asset management arms of the big four banks, AMP Capital Investors, Perpetual, a number of investment banks and industry superannuation funds.
They will now be lobbied by the AODP to individually adopt the disclosure framework.
"Pension and superannuation funds need to begin by being absolutely transparent about how they manage climate risk and to admit to the carbon intensity of their investments, and their plans to survive a possible forthcoming carbon crash," Hewson said.
"They may have escaped scrutiny over the sub-prime crisis, but we have to ensure they don't remain inactive over an even bigger systemic issue."
