Sharper focus in sust-fin: ASFI

Financial institutions in Australia are getting on with the job when it comes to sustainable funding, according to Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI) Chief Executive Officer Kristy Graham.

Speaking with ANZ’s Katharine Tapley on the sidelines of the ASFI sustainable finance summit in Sydney, Graham said the focus from financial services when it comes to sustainability had become more pragmatic, but no less ambitious.

“Ambition from the finance sector and ambition on climate more generally is definitely not lower,” she said. “But what is happening is financial institutions are going about it in a quieter fashion, with a laser focus on implementation and the commercial value that is coming from sustainability.”

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Graham said the conference had helped illustrate the strong link between growth in sustainable finance and Australia's long-term productivity.

“Sustainable finance is very much about identifying the future opportunities that will drive long- term economic growth and prosperity,” she said.

The conference was held just months after the release of Australia’s sustainable finance taxonomy, and was a key theme of discussion at the event.

There is clear “support and willingness from across the finance sector, including government and financial institutions, to take the taxonomy, pilot it, use it and to continue to iterate and improve and learn from that process”, Graham said.

The success of the release puts the Australian market in a position to lead globally, Graham said.

“The next big thing is taking that work that we've done domestically and playing a stronger global leadership role,” she said.

“There's tonne of global interest for ASFI to now take that work and develop global transition finance principles.”