Section 1707D — Corporations Act 2001: Limited immunity for statements in new sustainability reporting

(1) No action, suit or proceeding lies against a person in relation to: (a) a protected statement; or (b) a statement that is required to be made under a Commonwealth law and: (i) is the same as a protected statement; or (ii) differs from a protected statement only in so far as it contains updates or corrections to the protected statement. (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to an action, suit or proceeding if it is any of the following: (a) criminal in nature; (b) brought by ASIC. Meaning of protected statement (3) A statement is a protected statement if it is: (a) made: (i) in a sustainability report, for a financial year commencing during the 3 years starting on the start date, for the purpose of complying with a sustainability standard; or (ii) in an auditor’s report of an audit or review of a sustainability report mentioned in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph for the purposes of complying with this Act or the auditing standards; and (b) about any of the following: (i) scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions (including financed emissions); (ii) scenario analysis (within the meaning given by sustainability standards made for the purposes of this subparagraph); (iii) a transition plan (within the meaning given by sustainability standards made for the purposes of this subparagraph). (4) A statement is also a protected statement if it: (a) is made: (i) in a sustainability report, for a financial year commencing during the 12 months starting on the start date, for the purpose of complying with a sustainability standard; or (ii) in an auditor’s report of an audit or review of a sustainability report mentioned in subparagraph (i) of this paragraph for the purposes of complying with this Act or the auditing standards; and (b) relates to climate; and (c) at the time it is made, is about the future.