Australia risks punishment from global markets that will blow out the cost of, and strangle access to, capital for the corporate and government sectors if it keeps failing to develop a viable pathway to mitigate climate risk.

As warnings grow that Australia must accelerate efforts to decarbonise the economy ahead of the UN’s November Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), AustralianSuper chairman Don Russell said the nation was sufficiently well-known but small enough for global players to single out.