Across New Zealand and Australia, the impacts of a warming climate have been slowly changing how investors weigh up risk and returns.

Both countries have been experiencing more extreme events such as floods and bushfires, all while policy shifts and rising carbon prices increase pressure on firms to adapt.

As these risks grow more visible, investors are increasingly interested less in how well a fund has previously performed, and more in how likely it is to hold up in an uncertain future.

In recent years, each country has also introduced regimes mandating large companies and financial institutions to report how climate-related risks – from physical impacts to changing regulations – could affect their business.

These requirements are now being scaled back in New Zealand, with the government removing mandatory reporting obligations for more than half the 164 companies that have been subject to the rules.

By raising the threshold for inclusion in the regime from NZ$60 million to $1 billion in market capitalisation, only the very largest listed companies would still have to report.

Yet a newly released report from Deloitte suggests those underlying pressures justifying climate-risk disclosures have not gone away.

Investors, lenders and other stakeholders still expect clear........

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