First State Super only discloses its top 50 Australian and top 50 international shareholdings. From this limited information, we know at least 13% of the balanced option’s Australian share investments is in companies actively undermining the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, including Whitehaven Coal, Santos, Woodside, Oil Search and Origin Energy.
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Calling for Paris-alignment
First State Super has not demonstrated any evidence that it has called on any specific company to alter its strategy to bring it into line with the climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement. First State Super had the opportunity to do just that at Whitehaven Coal’s October 2018 Annual General Meeting, but the fund voted against a resolution expressing an opinion that Whitehaven’s strategy should align with the Paris climate goals.
First State Super is a member of the Climate Action 100+, which aims to encourage 100+ emissions-intensive companies to “Take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their value chain, consistent with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global average temperature increase to well below 2-degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”
Scenario analysis
As part of its 2016 Climate Change Adaptation Plan, First State Super disclosed a “high-level portfolio risk assessment,” which analysed a range of potential climate change scenarios. This analysis provided a discussion of potential climate risks and responses, but no quantitative data.
Climate voting record
First State Super discloses its proxy voting decisions annually. The fund supported 29% of the climate-related resolutions it has disclosed across 2017 and 2018.
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