Climate Change Action Plan

TelstraSuper’s fundamental objective is to enhance responsibly the financial security of our members in retirement. We support the development of a more sustainable global economy and the attainment of the Paris Agreement goals on climate change. TelstraSuper includes climate risk as part of our Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) considerations.

In 2021 we launched our Climate Change Action Plan which has three key goals:

1. Achieve Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2050, aiming for a 45% reduction by 2030.
2. Proactively invest in opportunities that are expected to be net beneficiaries of the transition to a net-zero emissions world.
3. Build portfolio resilience to the physical impacts of climate change across asset classes.

A five-pillar framework guides our actions to achieve these goals.

Twenty-five action items have been identified for delivery to assist in meeting our goals. It is intended that the Plan evolve over time as activities and outcomes are achieved.

Progress

You can read about our progress on implementing the Plan in our annual Climate Reports, which are located in the Key documents panel at the right of this web page.

Key achievements so far are:

1. Reducing the absolute emissions intensity of the combined Australian and international listed equities, listed infrastructure and listed property portfolios by 23% over the period from 1 October 2020 to 30 June 2022. These portfolios represent circa 55% of total member assets.
2. TelstraSuper has committed to investing $250m in low carbon opportunities by 2025. To date we have invested around $150m in renewable energy infrastructure and climate change related assets such as carbon credits.
3. Enhancing guidelines for external manager assessment and mandates to incorporate climate change expectations and climate metrics.
4. Completing physical risk assessment and transition risk profiling for the majority of our unlisted infrastructure assets.
5. Excluding primary-focus thermal coal producers from our investment portfolios (primary focus is defined as companies or groups that derive the majority of earnings from thermal coal production).

What does it mean for returns?

Our investment objectives haven’t changed and we’re still aiming to achieve strong long-term returns for our members, while prudently managing risk. Considering climate risk is a factor that helps us evaluate whether something is a good investment that will perform well for members over the long term.

What is TelstraSuper doing as a business?

TelstraSuper’s business operations were first certified carbon neutral by Climate Active for the 2020/21 financial year via the purchase of carbon offsets which supported the following projects:

• Fighting Fire with Fire project (Indigenous fire management in Northern Territory).
• Rainforest Protection (South America, Oceania and Africa).
• Winds of Change project (wind power in India).

TelstraSuper undertakes an annual measurement process, with the next technical assessment due in February 2024. Refer Climate Active Public Disclosure Statement for more information.