Australia's government-backed green bank takes aim at toughest emissions

This article originally appeared in AsianInvestor and is republished with permission.

15 February 2026

By Peter Brieger

Clean Energy Finance Corporation is focusing on scope 3 emissions as it looks to tackle one of the biggest carbon footprint challenges.

Australia's government-backed green bank, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), is taking aim at scope 3 emissions, widely considered the most difficult hurdle companies face in tackling their carbon footprint. The challenge is highlighted by its recent commitment to a global infrastructure fund.

Last month, CEFC announced it was deploying A$70 million ($50 million) to the Queensland Investment Corp. (QIC) Global Infrastructure Fund II in a bid to drive the decarbonisation of two of Australia's highest- emitting sectors — energy and transport.

The investment, which follows CEFC's earlier A$72 million investment in QIC's first infrastructure fund, focuses on infrastructure supporting the energy transition, including smart metering, transport decarbonisation and renewable generation.

For CEFC’s head of infrastructure, Julia Hinwood, the latest commitment was linked to QIC’s requirement that portfolio companies in the fund set emission reduction targets in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTI).

“With the portfolio companies, they have made it a fund requirement that they have to set emission reduction targets in line with the Science Based Targets initiative,” Hinwood told AsianInvestor.

“If more than 40% of your emissions are from scope 3, setting your target must include addressing those scope 3 emissions. So, it actually gets captured in that SBTi requirement.”

Scope 3 emissions come from activities across a firm's entire value chain, including supplier manufacturing, product transportation and consumer usage. Since they're often beyond a company's direct control, they're considered the toughest emissions to tackle, unlike Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions which come from an organisation's direct operations and energy purchases, respectively.

QIC's sustainability team supports portfolio companies in measuring emissions and setting up reporting programs, Hinwood said. She pointed to the importance of board-level KPIs for sustainability targets to ensure compliance.

“What we've seen them do is lend their sustainability team to the portfolio companies while they get them up to speed on measuring their emissions and working out targets and reporting programmes,” she said.

“They hire new ESG people who they embed in the businesses, and it's been very effective… you've made it a requirement at board level that you want to see this done… these will become KPI targets of the CEO so it's far more powerful than trying to do it bottom up.”

The companies also have quarterly meetings with QIC to discuss progress and address stumbling blocks, with the potential for exiting funds if the fund manager fails to make sufficient efforts towards sustainability.

During CEFC’s 2024-25 financial year, it deployed a record A$2.9 billion to accelerate Australia’s push toward its 82% renewable generation target by 2030. That record deployment has helped push CEFC to A$25.7 billion in clean energy project value, as Australia increasingly vies for renewable investment capital globally.

Last year, Dutch pension fund APG announced a A$1 billion investment in Octopus Australia's renewable energy platform, one of the largest institutional investments in the country's renewable sector.

But Australia still has a way to go to hit its 2050 net zero target, with CEFC having a separate mandate called Rewiring the Nation — a A$19.5 billion allocation to modernise the country’s energy infrastructure and support the transition to a fully renewable grid.

“Rewiring the Nation is all about investment in Australia's infrastructure,” Hinwood said. “They'll invest in renewable energy zones and interconnects… they're concentrating on getting the grid to where the renewable power is being generated, so the power can then be brought into the urban centres.”

Hinwood has a particular interest in emissions linked to the shipping industry.

“I'm in a more core‑plus infrastructure — the economic infrastructure, ports, airports, that kind of thing, and then transport infrastructure,” she said. “My focus is particularly on electrification of heavy fleet and the supporting infrastructure.

“We've also got other teams looking at alternative fuels, like low‑carbon liquid fuels and light‑fleet electrification. For me, I'm looking at the supporting infrastructure too, because there's such uncertainty about ramp‑up rates.”

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