Strange Bedfellows? Climate Change, Carbon Risk, and the Regulation of Corporate Disclosure

The corporate disclosure of risks, potential impacts, and strategies around climate change leaves much to be desired. A recent Senate Economics References Committee report states that there exist significant opportunities to improve carbon reporting, which would "benefit businesses, investors and the economy". The extent to which periodic and continuous disclosure requirements - and the exposure of corporations and their officers to liability for poor disclosure practices - can be relied upon to exert influence at these three sites is an important regulatory issue in the context of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Australia's commitments pursuant to it. With the release of the recommendations of the G20 Financial Stability Board's Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures in June 2017, the Commonwealth Government's climate policy review in December 2017, and shareholder action against Australia's largest corporation for its alleged failure to disclose climate risks in its financial reports, changes in this space are rapidly gathering pace. This article analyses the periodic and continuous disclosure requirements of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in the context of the Paris Agreement, highlighting the limitations of market-based regulatory initiatives in assisting its successful achievement.