CA ANZ develops practical roadmap for new climate reporting legislation
The passage of the climate reporting legislation earlier this week means businesses now have certainty to invest resources and focus on implementation, the professional body says.
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) and BDO have collaborated to develop a practical roadmap aimed at assisting finance professionals and finance teams to prepare for mandatory climate-related financial disclosures in Australia.
The bill to implement the reporting, Treasury Laws Amendment (Financial Market Infrastructure and Other Measures) Bill 2024, was finally passed by Parliament on Monday.
CA ANZ sustainability and business reform leader, Karen McWilliams, said the passage of the bill provides necessary certainty for business to invest resources and build capacity to focus on the implementation of these disclosures.
"As has been widely stated, this is one of the most significant changes to the corporate reporting system in a generation,” said McWilliams.
“Investors have been calling for high-quality, transparent and comparable disclosures when it comes to climate risks and opportunities. It’s now time that corporations embrace reporting as investors have clearly indicated this information is important to their decision-making.”
McWilliams said the new requirements will likely be overwhelming for many businesses, particularly those in group three who will start their reporting on 1 July 2027.
However, she warned that simply ignoring the changes will only make life harder for these entities.
CA ANZ and BDO have developed a practical roadmap aimed at helping finance professionals and finance teams to prepare for the mandatory reporting.
The roadmap guide sets out specific timelines and steps for implementing climate-related disclosures for each of the three groups.
McWilliams said accountants have a significant role to play in helping businesses meet their disclosure requirements.
“Chartered Accountants are well equipped to support organisations to prepare for the mandatory reporting requirements before the disclosures become mandatory from January,” said McWilliams.
“CA ANZ is supporting our members as they build capacity to prepare for reporting and assisting the organisations they work with to implement the new disclosures, with our Sustainability for Accountants elective recording a 45 per cent uplift in enrolments since we introduced it in May last year.”
CA ANZ is also producing a series of general information guides on key aspects of the disclosure requirements to build understanding. The scenario analysis guide was released last month in collaboration with ERM Energetics.
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