The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has urged listed companies to lift their game on climate risk disclosures after finding the information provided is often too general to be useful.

Commissioner John Price says disclosure practices are evolving globally and ASIC will monitor the market in Australia as the area continues to develop.

“Climate change is a foreseeable risk facing many listed companies in the Australian market in a range of different industries,” Mr Price said.

“Directors and officers of listed companies need to understand and continually reassess existing and emerging risks, including climate risk, that may affect the company’s business – for better or for worse.”

An ASIC study of 60 companies from the Australian Securities Exchange top 300 found many disclosures are not comprehensive enough to be useful for investors and a consistent approach is lacking.

“It was often difficult to discern whether general references to climate change risk related to physical or transition climate risks or both,” ASIC said.

Only 17% of the listed companies explicitly identified climate as a material business risk in the operating and financial review

A number of companies in the review intend to fully or partly adopt recommendations released by the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, set up by the G20 Financial Stability Board.