Media release: Office of Energy and Climate Change
The NSW Government has announced the successful completion of pilots for three public sector organisations to deliver climate disclosure statements to boost investment and cut risks.
Climate Change and Sustainability Acting Executive Director, Justin Koek, said the pilots are aligned with private sector international best practice and the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) framework for public sector disclosures of climate risks and opportunities.
These disclosures allow for more information on climate change to be made available to the public, improving the government’s management of climate change impacts on the state.
“Under the pilots Essential Energy, the Environment Protection Authority and NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service have completed disclosure statements aligned with the TCFD framework and will release these in the coming weeks,” Mr Koek said.
“This framework provides consistent and transparent information to the global market to help investors, lenders and insurance underwriters assess and price climate-related risks and opportunities and make informed investment decisions.
“Ultimately this helps us reduce the harm caused by climate change impacts and the risks of sudden value shifts and destabilising costs.
“TCFD reporting will increase NSW Government organisations’ transparency and accountability by making more information on climate change management publicly available.
“This improves climate change management by directing greater focus to identifying, managing and disclosing climate-related risks and opportunities.”
Learnings from the pilots will be used to produce a guide to support government entities intending to make climate-related disclosures in future.
This also will help the NSW Government develop a whole-of-government climate change disclosure in 2023, tailored to the needs of the community and market participants.
The three organisations prepared their pilot statements in alignment with the TCFD framework and NSW Climate Risk Ready Guide using the best available data.
These were peer-reviewed by Point Advisory, a qualified sustainability and climate change auditor and assurance provider.
“In undertaking this pilot, the NSW Government is an early adopter of organisation-level climate risk disclosures in the public sector which will help in the global race to a lower carbon economy,” Mr Koek said.
For more information visit AdaptNSW.