XRB on new international climate reporting standards

"So far New Zealand is the only country where large companies and entities are required by the government to include climate disclosure as part of their annual reporting."

Such is the ideology of this current Government. They believe that they can somehow impact global emissions by having companies within the New Zealand financial services industry include a climate related disclosure as part of their annual reporting. This is despite the fact that stats published by the Environmental Protection Authority in 2022 showed the biggest emitters were for milk, petrol, fossil (or natural) gas and meat businesses, with electricity, and steel companies rounding out the top group because of their fossil fuel use. By contrast, many of New Zealand’s biggest employers and profit makers (including banks, vineyards, telcos, healthcare companies and renewable energy providers) didn’t appear in the top climate polluter ranks because their emissions weren’t high enough to qualify for compulsory reporting. None of New Zealand's biggest climate polluters are associated with the financial services industry.

The reality is that the main drivers of climate change Co2 are global overpopulation & coal fired power stations. The planet clicked over 8 billion population recently and is heading to 10 billion population by 2045-2050. China has removed its one child policy and the Indian sub-continent can't accurately count their ever-increasing numbers. Each extra head adds around 60 tons of equivalent Co2 per year. Thousands of extra coal fired power stations are being built annually in the top 10 countries alone e.g. 1,100 additional in China and 480 in India.

Unfortunately, with the above in mind, what we do here in New Zealand to reduce our Co2 emissions makes no measurable difference at all to the planet. Sorry but you cannot ignore the facts. The new climate related disclosure (CRD) requirement for the financial services industry is yet another example then of this Government adding unnecessary cost and complexity to business. Banks and insurers etc. will now have to hire more staff specifically to meet their new climate disclosure requirements and these costs will inevitably get past on to their customers. The New Zealand consumer continues to be saddled with additional costs due to an avalanche of overregulation much of which has questionable benefit. The only people who seem to be winning from this additional regulation are the ever-burgeoning number of Wellington bureaucrats.

Being numbers people let’s look at those, on the latest world emissions chart New Zealand emits 0.07 % of world emissions which basically means if we stopped all carbon-based emissions today (cars, industry etc.) we would not even make a contribution to reducing climate change at all.
China on the other hand emits 32 % of the world emissions.
How may of the bureaucrats that made up this rubbish wear clothes and shoes and drive petrol and electric cars all made in China!
Hypocrisy at its finest.

@amused: heard of this saying "a lizard talking like a crocodile"?
in nz's case, it's more like a spider talking like a giant octopus.

The article is incorrect. NZ is not the only country that has mandated. The UK has mandated the TCFD regime for large companies and all companies by 2025. Most other major economies are close to putting in place; EU, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Switzerland, USA. Being first puts NZ exporters in a strong place to evidence to large global buyers - think Nestle or Tescos that our products are on a carbon reduction path (as inputs to their reporting) and meeting increasing consumer demand. Suggest advisers focus on understanding so they can explain fund manager reports to concerned clients. Perhaps you might also want to take a view on where your clients can safely buy a bach.......