Super funds urge special rules on climate disclosure

Australian superannuation funds want to be treated differently with respect to the Australian Accounting Standards Board around climate-related financial information, arguing super funds differ from the entities for whom the rules were originally set.

The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) said that while it supports the inclusion of superannuation into the regime for mandatory climate reporting, the current regime is not appropriate and will need adjustment.

As well it has suggested that the Accounting Standards Board will needs to provide specific guidance to the superannuation sector ahead of the introduction of mandatory reporting requirements.

“The original standards, upon which the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards are based, relate to the provision of institutional capital to (typically) non-financial private sector entities.” ASFA said in a submission.

“In contrast, superannuation funds are universal asset owners that make investments on behalf of individual Australians – who will be the primary users of fund reporting.”

“ASFA considers that a particular issue for superannuation entities is how the current definition of ‘primary users’ of general-purpose financial statements relates to members of superannuation funds,” ASFA said.

“Broadly speaking, the definition of primary users of general-purpose financial statements relates to the provision of institutional capital to private sector (typically non-financial) corporate entities.”

ASFA said that with respect to climate-related financial disclosures of superannuation entities, the primary users would be individual members of superannuation funds who, generally, could not be assumed to have in-depth knowledge of the companies in which funds were investing.