Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) – s516A EPBC Act Reporting

NAIF has a statutory obligation under section 516A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to report on how its activities accord with ESD principles. NAIF does this through applying its Environmental and Social Review of Transactions Policy (ESR Policy) and as outlined in the Environmental Footprint section below.

Environmental and Social Review of Transactions Policy

NAIF’s current ESR Policy, available on the NAIF website, is consistent with the Government’s expectations outlined in section 17(1) of the Investment Mandate. That section requires NAIF to have regard to best practice government governance principles, and Australian best practice corporate governance for commercial lenders when performing its functions, including developing and annually reviewing policies with regard to environmental, social and governance issues. The ESR Policy has been assessed by independent experts as being consistent with best practice and is subject to regular ongoing review.

Environmental Footprint

In FY18-19 NAIF operated from four locations:

• a head office in Cairns, Queensland;
• in Sydney, New South Wales, where NAIF has a service level agreement (SLA) with Export Finance Australia;
• Brisbane, Queensland where NAIF accesses two desks through DIIS; and
• Perth, Western Australia where NAIF accesses one desk through the Export Finance Australia agreement with Austrade.

Figure 9: Environmental Performance Reporting