Submission: Investible Plan for Green Metals

• Good community and workforce outcomes are critical elements of secure industries.
• Supporting innovation across the capital stack will generate a pipeline of investible opportunities for institutional investors to provide patient capital towards.
• Mass deployment of renewable energy to support green metals industries is essential.

The Investor Group on Climate Change welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission on accelerating investment in green metals industries, as part of the Future Made in Australia agenda. This submission will highlight barriers and opportunities for investors, and for green metals industries.

These include the following barriers:

• Green metals investments must offer the right risk-return profiles. Superannuation funds have a duty to act ‘in the best financial interests’ of their members. This fiduciary duty prevents some superannuation funds from investing in projects that offer below-market returns.
• A secure and skilled workforce is required to develop new green industries. Getting the incentives right for workers to do apprenticeships in industries that support the transition must include more than financial support. Fair wages, safe working conditions and social infrastructure in surrounding communities are all critical elements to durable industries, which improve investor certainty.
• Renewable energy generation and capacity must be massively scaled to support decarbonised industry.

Government can accelerate investment by:

• Ensuring a consistent policy approach in the transition to net zero emissions. Significant work is underway on the sector decarbonisation plans, the Net Zero Plan and on the Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, and potentially more under the sector assessments via the proposed Future Made in Australia bill. Ensuring work is harmonised and not duplicative is critical, to ensure a consistent policy approach that sends amplified market signals to investors.

Establish durable policies that secure markets of demand and address the green premium, which are crucial elements of industry policy to improve investor confidence.

Read the full submission.