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ESG services for the Government sector – Take charge of change. Plan. Prepare. Respond with RSM.
Discover the importance of ESG reporting for the government sector with Catherine Bell, a partner of ESG and Climate Services at RSM in Perth, Australia.
With over 20 years of global experience, Bell shares her insights on the challenges and opportunities facing the government in this crucial area.
The Australian government is currently under an enormous amount of pressure with an economic transformation to the green energy future. Factoring in climate change and the rising cost of living, it is essential that they align with the likes of corporates around the world where it has become business as usual to report on ESG matters.
Catherine identifies the biggest hurdles for the government sector when it comes to ESG reporting, including the lack of skills, the need for collaboration, and the difficulty of data collection and verification.
She further emphasises that the government sector should establish the right foundations, frameworks, policies, and metrics for ESG reporting, to measure the impact of their actions and ensure they are effective in reducing emissions.
READ TRANSCRIPT
My name's Catherine Bell. I'm a partner of ESG and Climate Services here at RSM in Perth, Australia. I've been working in the space for over five years but working globally in Asia Pacific and Europe for almost 20 years.
The government sector should be reporting on ESG. They're under a huge amount of pressure at the moment with an economic transformation or a transformation to the green energy future. We also have climate change issues. We have cost of living problems. It is essential that they do align with the likes of corporates around the world that are now actually, it's becoming business as normal to report on ESG matters. .
I think the biggest hurdles for government when it comes to ESG reporting will be around getting the skills to essentially help them actually enact these policies, the frameworks, the reporting. The second would be around collaboration. Government is essentially fragmented. You know, across the agencies and departments. So having to come together and build these programs that are effectively interlinked and connected will be a big challenge.
And thirdly is really around the data, finding that data across the large portfolio is going to be really hard. It's going to take a lot of time, new systems, new internal processes will have to be developed to ensure that this data is getting collected in the right way. The veracity of that data is sound and that it is then reported in a format that is consistent and comparable across markets.
I think the biggest focus areas for government going forward will be cost of living. The next would be around climate change and then the balance between how you manage these transformation investment needs versus the citizens on the ground there are struggling with the cost of living. So, it's going to be challenging for governments going forward when it comes to ensuring that the liveability of citizens increases, but also ensures that this smooth transition to a green economy happens in a way not at the expense of liveability.
Well, I think right now for government, it's really about trying to ensure that they put in the right foundations in place, understand the framework in which they are essentially reporting towards a particular mandate, understand what the projects are and what are the budget considerations and determination around that. And also, how do you measure impact? Because this is going to be really important in terms of ensuring that they keep receiving the budget to move forward and that what they are doing is actually moving them towards the target of reducing emissions.
