Climate Risk & Response: Governance, Reporting & Assurance
Build your capacity to act in response to climate change with Australia's leading climate risk and reporting experts.
Enrol
1 day
In-Person
Canberra City Campus
$1,100.00
$935.00*
* Available for group bookings of 3 or more.
Accelerate your career, learn new skills, and expand your knowledge.
First in Australia for research excellence and impact.
Top 50 in the world. 2020 QS World University Rankings.
Overview
From 1 Jan 2025 Australian business will need to undertake the mandatory disclosure of climate related financial information where it relates to areas such as governance, strategy, and risk management, as well as the metrics and targets used to measure and report on these. ASIC has acknowledged this as one of “the biggest changes to financial reporting … in a generation”.
This new requirement presents both a challenge and an opportunity to position yourself and your organisation as a leader in climate risk management. To help you navigate this shift the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response (ICRR) is offering a course specifically designed to guide you through the crucial changes that the new legislation entails.
The course is delivered by an internationally renowned team of experts in climate change, risk analysis, accounting, audit, and governance. Drawing on UNSW’s multi-disciplinary expertise from the Faculties of Science, Business, and Law & Justice, and with extensive experience of supporting organisations - both private (ASX 200) and public sector – the ICRR’s team are uniquely placed to help you understand, design, and execute effective climate strategies and disclosure into an organisation’s operations.
Course content
Pre-Workshop: Participants receive essential reading materials to prepare for the session.
Part 1: Governance
Topics include: the Paris Agreement, domestic policy environment, sovereign risk, available governance frameworks and guidelines, best practice governance, avoiding greenwashing, and communicating climate science and uncertainty in organisations
Part 2: Strategy and risk management
Topics include: the materiality risk lens, risk identification and assessment, using scenario analysis to test business strategy, and risk response definition
Part 3: Metrics and targets
Topics include: scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions and other risk metrics, net-zero and other targets, using carbon credits, integrating climate-related risks and opportunities in the financial statements, and communicating uncertain climate information to external parties
Part 4: Assurance
Topics include: current assurance standards, types of assurance and assurance opinion, other credibility enhancing mechanisms, and preparing climate-related data for assurance
Post-Workshop: Participants receive additional materials to deepen their understanding.
Learning outcomes
By completing this course, you will be able to:
- Describe developments in the current international and domestic climate regulatory environment
- Identify gaps between climate science knowledge and climate risk perception for both internal and external stakeholders
- Apply key skills necessary to ensure the credibility of climate information
- Evaluate best practice reporting using real-world examples, including:
- Understanding why climate science and a systems-based perspective is fundamental to a strategically effective organisational response
- Comparing and contrasting a risk-based lens with a compliance-based lens
Who should attend
This course is designed for people who:
- Are beginning on the climate risk journey and want to avoid the pitfalls of a highly complex and novel domain.
- Need a deeper understanding of climate risk to excel in their roles.
- Seek to implement impactful climate actions and apply research-driven insights.
- Are considering a career (including board-level) transition, and require specialised training in climate risk and response.
Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this course.
Facilitators
Dr Tanya Fiedler
Tanya is a Scientia Fellow at the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response and School of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, UNSW Sydney.
Tanya is recognised internationally as a pioneering expert in the field of climate risk accounting and accountability. Her research considers the translation and integration of information derived from climate and earth system sciences to accounting values and practice. She has published in leading interdisciplinary and accounting journals, including Nature Climate Change, Energy Economics, and Accounting, Organizations and Society.
Tanya engages deeply with industry, standard setters, and regulators, both through her research as well as in an advisory capacity. Her work has been cited in the 2023 Economic Report of the President of the United States, as well as by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
Professor Ben Newell
Ben is Professor of Behavioural Science in the School of Psychology at UNSW Sydney, and Director of the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk & Response. His research focuses on the cognitive processes underlying judgment, choice and decision-making and the application of this knowledge to environmental, medical, financial and forensic contexts.
He has published multiple articles on the psychology of human judgment and decision making, including those that lie at the intersection of psychology and climate change, with particular focus on the understanding of uncertainty and risk.
Ben is a member of the Academic Advisory Panel of the Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA), and the Chief Medical Officer’s advisory group for the National Health and Climate Strategy.
Olivia Kember
Olivia Kember has worked on climate risk from many angles over fifteen years, covering carbon and energy policy, decarbonisation targets and technology pathways, physical climate risks at the levels of sites, businesses and industries, public opinion on climate change and climate action, and business strategies for climate risk management.
As a principal consultant at Energetics (now part of ERM), she engaged with the development of Australia's new climate-related financial disclosure requirements, and produced thought leadership and consulting services to guide Australian companies through their initial disclosures. She has supported ASX200 companies and financial institutions with climate-related risk assessment and scenario analysis, decarbonisation strategy development, and disclosures. Her background includes journalism, diplomacy, policy analysis and advocacy. She holds a MA in security studies from Georgetown University.
Dr Nick Wood
Nick Wood is an expert in the emerging field of climate change as a sovereign risk. Over the last 25 years he has purposely engaged with three key aspects that directly address this.
These aspects are:
- The design and implementation of carbon pricing mechanisms across multiple jurisdictions
- The development of effective and functional linkages between the national and global climate science capability and the financial system and,
- The promotion of aspects of governance, transparency and rigour required to manage the complex risks presented by climate change.
He has a strong track record of delivering innovative solutions across a wide range of climate policy issues to leadership teams in global businesses, to key decision makers in Governments and to international audiences.
At the core of his strategic work is the simple observation that climate change exhibits a deep complexity that presents serious challenges for both the Australian and global financial sectors.
Dr Maria Balatbat
Maria is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation and a Founding Director at the Collaboration for Energy and Environmental Markets (CEEM) at UNSW Sydney. A former member of the technical working group of the Carbon Disclosure Standards Board, her research include integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) dimensions in investment decision making including, disclosure of climate change information.
She has received several Australian Research Council (ARC) grants with projects that examine the capital market implications of Integrated Reporting and use of environmental and social indicators to develop a valuation methodology for investment decisions. Maria currently teaches courses on ESG reporting and value creation and reporting for climate change and sustainability at the Business School. She is also a director for the not-for-profit Australasian Reporting Awards, a Fellow of CPA Australia and a member of the Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ). Maria has a PhD in Economics at the University of Sydney.
Cancellation policy
Courses will be held subject to sufficient registrations. UNSW Canberra reserves the right to cancel a course up to five working days prior to commencement of the course. If a course is cancelled, you will have the opportunity to transfer your registration or be issued a full refund. If registrant cancels within 10 days of course commencement, a 50% registration fee will apply. UNSW Canberra is a registered ACT provider under ESOS Act 2000-CRICOS provider Code 00098G.