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What future is your super funding?
We’ve created the table below to help you find out if your super fund is investing your retirement savings into coal, oil and gas.
Superannuation allows Australians the opportunity to retire with comfort and security. But what if the super we retire with has been funding environmental destruction and runaway climate change? What if, by investing in fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas, our super funds deliver us a polluted world to retire into?
Find out which super funds are invested in companies that are actively undermining the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement, and take action to tell your fund to lift its game on climate action.
What is the Climate Wreckers Index?
The Climate Wreckers Index comprises 190 publicly-listed companies from all over the world with the biggest plans to expand the scale of the fossil fuel industry. The “Exposure to Climate Wreckers Index” column in the table below shows the extent to which each super fund investment option is invested in these climate-wrecking companies.
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Explanation of super funds table categories
Coal exclusion policy categories
Comprehensive | This super fund option excludes investments in all companies that are either expanding the scale of the coal sector (including extraction and transport of thermal and metallurgical coal, and coal power generation), and/or companies relying on scenarios consistent with the failure of the Paris Agreement to justify their future coal business prospects. No investments in companies like Whitehaven Coal, New Hope, AGL, BHP, or South32. | |
Some | This super fund option excludes investments in companies deriving 33% or more revenue from thermal coal mining and coal power generation in both active and passive holdings. No investments in companies like Whitehaven Coal, New Hope, or AGL. | |
Minimal | This super fund option excludes investments in companies deriving 75% or more revenue from thermal coal mining in both active and passive holdings. No investments in companies like Whitehaven Coal or New Hope. | |
Reduced exposure | This super fund option has publicly disclosed details of a policy (such as low carbon benchmarking or stranded asset risk weighting) that reduces exposure to some companies deriving revenue from coal operations. | |
Future commitment | This super fund option has no currently disclosed coal exclusion, but intends to phase out thermal coal exposure by or before 2030. By this time it will have no investments in companies like Whitehaven Coal or New Hope. | |
None | No coal exclusion policy found. |
Oil and gas exclusion policy categories
Comprehensive | This super fund option excludes investments in all companies that are either expanding the scale of the oil and gas sector (including exploration, extraction, processing/refining, infrastructure, transport and power generation), and/or relying on scenarios consistent with the failure of the Paris Agreement to justify their future oil and gas business prospects. No investments in companies like Woodside, Santos, Origin Energy, Beach Energy, or APA Group. | |
Some | This super fund option excludes investments in companies deriving 50% or more revenue from oil and gas production in both active and passive holdings. No investments in companies like Woodside, Santos, or Beach Energy. | |
Minimal | This super fund option excludes investments in companies deriving 50% or more revenue from oil and gas production in active holdings only. No active investments in companies like Woodside, Santos, or Beach Energy. | |
Reduced exposure | This super fund option has publicly disclosed details of a policy (such as low carbon benchmarking or stranded asset risk weighting) that reduces exposure to some companies deriving revenue from oil and gas production. | |
Future commitment | This super fund option has failed to set an oil and gas revenue threshold, but instead intends to phase out oil and gas exposure by or before 2040. By this time it will have no investments in companies like Woodside, Santos, Origin Energy, Beach Energy, or APA Group. | |
None | No oil and gas policy found. |
What is the Climate Wreckers Index?
The Climate Wreckers Index is made up of the 190 publicly-listed companies from all over the world with the biggest plans to expand the scale of the fossil fuel industry. Specifically, the list includes:
- The top 60 oil and gas producers by expansion plans
- The top 60 coal miners by expansion plans and coal reserves
- The top 30 companies by new gas power plant development plans
- The top 30 companies by new coal power plant development plans
- The top 10 companies by liquefied natural gas (LNG) import and export terminal development plans
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Methodology
Scope
The scope of our analysis covers the default (or largest) investment option of Australia’s largest 30 super funds by assets under management, according to APRA’s June 2022 fund-level superannuation statistics (Table 1 and Table 2). Wherever these funds include an actively managed ‘sustainable’ or ‘socially responsible’ (or equivalent) investment option, these are also included in the table. Further to these APRA-regulated funds, our analysis includes state-regulated funds and a number of ethical super funds that are outside the top 30 funds.
Where mergers between super funds have occurred since June 2022, the single merged entity is listed on the table and occupies only one position on the table, unless the merged funds were found to have clearly separate default options with different investments.
The final analysis excludes HUB24, Netwealth and Macquarie, which do not appear to have default investment options comparable to the rest of those captured in the study.
Process: Exposure to Climate Wreckers Index
Portfolio holdings disclosures were collected for the funds listed in the table above. These holdings were filtered for listed equities, and we extracted all the investments whose security identifiers matched companies in the Climate Wreckers Index. We calculated and have presented the total investment exposure to Climate Wreckers Index companies as a percentage of total listed equities in the option, minus any allocation to pooled or managed investment fund products within the total listed equities allocation.
Details
- Portfolio holdings disclosures are as at 31 December 2022
- ‘Total listed equities allocation’ does not include derivatives
Sources
Portfolio holdings disclosures for all funds are as at 31 December 2022, and were sourced from each fund’s website.
Disclaimer
The information provided by Market Forces does not constitute financial advice. The information is presented in order to inform people motivated by environmental concerns and take actions based on those concerns. Market Forces is organising data for environmental ends.
The information and actions provided by Market Forces do not account for any individual’s personal objectives, financial situation or needs. It should not be used, relied upon, or treated as a substitute for specific professional advice.
Market Forces recommends all users obtain their own independent professional advice before making any decision relating to their particular requirements or circumstances. Switching super funds may have unintended financial consequences.
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