The Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP) has lashed out at the Future Fund after it rejected an invitation to release disclosure on its climate change risk strategy.
AODP claimed it had received a letter in which the $75 billion fund said "resource constraints" held it back from the climate change commitment.
But AODP claimed the Future Fund had never put the climate change issue on the table. It said a freedom of information search two years ago revealed climate change had not been mentioned in any of its board meetings, while the former head of the fund, David Murray, was a climate change denier, according to AODP.
AODP chair John Hewson said it was not a matter of science but one of risk and protecting the fund's assets. He said there were many ways in which the economy could shift suddenly to a low-carbon economy.
"Under any of those scenarios, we will see rapid direct or indirect repricing of carbon, and then the Future Fund will be unable to sell any stranded assets, so it must start planning now," he said.
Chief executive of The Climate Institute John Connor said Australia had a massive risk exposure to climate change and its regulation.
"For our largest pool of capital to ignore this is a problem for Government and regulators, but most of all for citizens and taxpayers who are entitled to know what the board of guardians are actually doing," he said.
AODP said the issue had been elevated by the country's carbon pricing scheme, which was linked to international schemes.
In August, the disclosure project invited the largest 1000 asset owners to provide disclosure on the issue, with a view to publishing a global index of funds later in the year.
