ASIC levy will fund greenwashing initiatives

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor and Publisher

9 May 2023

The Government has used the Budget to making a commitment towards green bonds and to counter greenwashing with some of the cost to be funded via the ASIC levy.

The Budget papers revealed the Government will provide $14.2 million over 4 years from 2023–24 to support its sustainable finance agenda, including:

• $8.3 million over 4 years from 2023–24 (and $1.3 million per year ongoing) to establish a sovereign green bond program to raise capital for environmental and climate change related programs
• $4.3 million in 2023–24 for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to ensure the integrity of sustainable finance markets by investigating and undertaking enforcement action against market participants engaging in greenwashing and other sustainable finance misconduct
• $1.6 million in 2023–24 to support the initial development of a sustainable finance taxonomy for classifying economic activities according to their impact on sustainability goals.

The Budget papers said funding for ASIC activities will be cost recovered through levies under ASIC’s funding model with partial funding for this measure will be held in the Contingency Reserve.