New Zealand minister calls for finance sector to disclose climate crisis risks in world first

Green party makes electoral pledge that would make it mandatory for large financial institutions to reveal exposure to climate-related risks

New Zealand's left-leaning Green party said it would require the financial sector to make annual disclosures about the impact of the climate crisis on their business, if it once again formed a government after October's election. The policy would be a world-first, said James Shaw, the climate change minister and co-leader of the party.

Australia, Canada, [the] UK, France, Japan, and the European Union are all working towards some form of climate risk reporting for companies," said Shaw in a statement. But New Zealand is moving ahead of them by making disclosures about climate risk mandatory across the financial system."