The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko – has issued its conclusive guidance for climate reporting entities (CREs) concerning their obligations in record-keeping.

This guidance delineates the principles and outlines the FMA’s expectations regarding the creation, maintenance, and proper storage of records by CREs. These records serve as evidence demonstrating compliance of climate statements with the Financial Markets Conduct Act (FMCA) and the Aotearoa New Zealand Climate Standards framework and under the Climate Related Disclosures (CRD) regime.

The objectives of climate standards, as defined in the Financial Reporting Act, encompass the facilitation or promotion of climate-related disclosures:

• Encouraging entities to routinely evaluate short, medium, and long-term risks and opportunities presented by climate change to the entity’s activities or its group
• Enabling entities to demonstrate how they are taking into account these risks and opportunities
• Allowing investors and other stakeholders to assess the credibility of how entities are considering such risks and opportunities

The finalization of this guidance follows an extensive consultation earlier this year, during which the FMA received feedback from a diverse range of stakeholders through 13 submissions.

“Responses to the consultation was constructive with most submitters supporting the FMA’s overall approach to the guidance. The FMA has made several amendments to the guidance based on the feedback,” FMA CRD manager Jenika Phipps said.

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