The Financial Markets Authority is extending its ‘no action’ approach on climate reporting obligations for affected climate reporting entities.

It has made this move as the Government failed to pass relevant legislation before the House rose for the upcoming election.

It had planned to remove listed issuers with market capitalisation below $1 billion, investment scheme managers and health and life insurers from the climate reporting regime through the Financial Markets Conduct Amendment Bill.

FMA General Counsel Liam Mason says many entities are impacted by the uncertainty about their reporting requirements given the amending legislation has not been passed.

To provide certainty the FMA is extending the existing ‘no action’ relief for the first five 2026/2027 reporting periods with balance dates of March 31, 2027 up to and including 31 January 31, 2028.

“We will not have clear direction on the future of this policy until the new Government forms after the November election. This means entities do not know whether they will continue to be required to lodge climate statements and may not know for some months. The ‘no-action’ approach will avoid unnecessary compliance costs and provide some certainty for climate reporting entities in the interim,” Mason says.

A ‘no action’ approach means that the FMA will not take action against a person for breach of a statutory or regulatory obligation.