Canada Is Investing More in Australian Renewables than Australian Super
From 20 to 27 September, Climate Week NYC brings the world's largest asset owners to Manhattan, alongside the United Nations General Assembly. The Sustainable Investment Forum, now in its eleventh year, runs in partnership with the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative. It gathers institutional investors managing more than US$3 trillion. Their focus is how to move capital into clean energy and climate-resilient infrastructure at scale. European pension giants including PFA, PKA and PensionDanmark, managing a combined US$230 billion, are among those sharing how they deploy long-horizon capital into the transition.
Australia's own pool of long-horizon capital dwarfs any of those funds individually. Superannuation holds $4.5 trillion in retirement savings, more than the entire Canadian pension system. Yet global capital is converging on exactly the funding gap the energy transition needs closed. Australia's top 30 super funds have invested just $771 million, or 0.8 per cent, of the $99 billion poured into local renewable projects since 2020 (ABC News, 26 July 2026). That is enough to cover only 4 per cent of the new renewable capacity Australia needs by 2030.
The gap super won’t close
The $99 billion invested in Australian renewables since January 2020 spans 514 projects: wind farms, solar plants, transmission lines and storage. Australia's biggest superannuation funds, collectively managing $2.5 trillion in retirement savings, supplied $771 million of it. Justin Medcalf, co-founder of UNLESS Financial and a Certified Responsible Investment Adviser with nearly two decades in ethical finance, has watched this pattern play out across the sector. He spent a decade helping govern it as a former Responsible Investment Association Australasia board member. His read is that the shortfall is not a lack of appetite for climate-aligned investment. It is a structural reluctance to back one specific asset class, direct renewable infrastructure, that the transition most needs funded.
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia says 29 of the top 30 funds report some renewable energy exposure. Almost all funds can point to a line item. Very few are willing to write a large cheque for a wind farm or transmission project directly. Association chief executive Mary Delahunty frames the opportunity in terms beyond financial return alone. She describes nation-building infrastructure investment as capable of delivering "the double dividend of a social return" alongside member returns (ABC News, 2026). The funds have not yet acted on that framing at scale.
Foreign capital is backing Australian renewable energy projects
Canadian pension funds alone have invested $1.2 billion in Australian renewable energy projects since 2020. That is more than the combined $771 million from every major Australian super fund. Canada's pension system manages a fraction of the $4.5 trillion sitting in Australian superannuation. Yet it has moved more capital into Australian clean energy than the funds meant to be investing on Australians' behalf. Richie Merzian, chief executive of the Clean Energy Investor Group, and Advisory Council member of UNLESS Financial, says tapping the domestic pension pool "could make a huge difference" and give Australians "direct ownership" of the energy transition their own retirement savings are meant to support (ABC News, 2026).
Evidence
ASFA's own data shows the disconnect is not a lack of exposure but a lack of direct commitment. All but one fund out of the top 30 funds report some renewable energy holding, mostly through listed equities in large-cap energy or utility companies rather than direct project finance. Treasury figures cited in the same reporting confirm the $771 million direct-investment figure against the $99 billion market total. That 0.8 per cent share has barely moved since 2020, despite renewables now supplying the majority of Australia's electricity generation on many days. The capacity shortfall compounds the dollar shortfall. At current rates of direct investment, super funds are on track to fund only 4 per cent of the new renewable capacity the 2030 target requires.
The fossil fuel tilt sits awkwardly against fiduciary duty
Compounding the gap, Australia's major super funds invested more than three times as much in fossil fuel expansion last year as they did in clean energy (ABC News, 2026). Fund trustees carry a fiduciary duty to act in members' long-term financial interests. Funds typically justify fossil fuel holdings as diversification, or as backing companies through an orderly transition. That justification sits awkwardly next to a 0.8 per cent renewable allocation and a three-to-one tilt the other way. If the transition represents the return opportunity Climate Week NYC's asset owners are positioning for, a fiduciary duty argument built on caution starts to look like it is protecting the wrong risk.
Reading your own fund's annual disclosure is a reasonable place to start weighing that question. Most funds now publish a breakdown of unlisted infrastructure and energy holdings, and checking what share sits in renewable projects against fossil fuel exposure takes a few minutes on most fund websites.
Chalmers reviews the test, and the ripple runs three ways
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has acknowledged the tension directly, telling reporters: "If we can unlock more investment that will help Australians in areas like energy and housing, at the same time as members get the best returns, of course we'll consider that" (ABC News, 2026). The government's review is examining whether benchmarks can be adjusted for emerging and alternative asset classes, such as renewable infrastructure. It aims to do so without weakening the test's core job of protecting members from underperformance.
The effect of the current settings cascades across three levels:
Personally, if you hold a mainstream super account, your retirement balance is statistically more likely to be backing fossil fuel expansion than the clean energy transition, at roughly three times the rate.
At the system level, a backward-looking performance test rewards funds for sticking to short-cycle, easily benchmarked assets. It penalises the long-horizon infrastructure bets that a $4.5 trillion pool of patient capital should be best placed to make.
At the economic level, Australia risks financing its own energy transition with Canadian, European and other foreign pension capital, while its own $4.5 trillion in domestic savings sits largely on the sidelines. It is watching global capital do at Climate Week NYC what it has not yet done at home.
None of these three layers is separate from the others. A backward-looking test shapes fund behaviour, fund behaviour shapes whose retirement balance funds the transition, and the sum of those choices decides which country's capital ends up owning Australia's energy future.
What to ask your fund
Checking your own fund's position takes a few direct questions, such as:
Ask what percentage of your balance sits in direct renewable energy or infrastructure investment, rather than passive equity exposure to energy companies.
Ask how your fund's fossil fuel expansion holdings compare to its clean energy holdings, in dollar terms.
Ask whether your fund has taken a public position on reforming the performance test to better accommodate long-term infrastructure.
Sources and further reading
ABC News | [As clean energy investment faces headwinds, superannuation could help fill the funding gap] (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-26/superannuation-renewable-energy-investment-funding-gap/106842116) | 2026 | Primary source for the $771 million/0.8 per cent figure, the Canadian pension comparison, the fossil fuel tilt, and quotes from Delahunty, O'Connor, Merzian and Chalmers
Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) | [Modernising the annual superannuation performance test] (https://www.superannuation.asn.au/modernising-the-annual-superannuation-performance-test/) | 2026 | Industry position on reforming performance test benchmarks for long-horizon and alternative asset classes
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) | [Annual superannuation performance test] (https://www.apra.gov.au/superannuation/performance-and-transparency/annual-superannuation-performance-test) | 2026 | Official methodology for the eight-year rolling benchmark test and consequences for underperforming funds
Climate Week NYC | [Climate Week NYC 2026] (https://www.climateweeknyc.org/) | 2026 | Official dates (20 to 27 September 2026) and programming alongside the UN General Assembly
Market Forces | [Australia's top super funds invest in only 4% of clean energy needed by 2030] (https://www.marketforces.org.au/australias-top-super-funds-invest-in-only-4-of-clean-energy-needed-by-2030/) | 2026 | Independent analysis corroborating the 4 per cent capacity shortfall against the 2030 renewable target
Sustainable Investment Forum North America | [Climate Week NYC agenda] (https://events.climateaction.org/sustainable-investment-forum-north-america/agenda/) | 2026 | Confirms the forum's focus on asset owners managing over US$3 trillion and participation of European pension funds PFA, PKA and PensionDanmark
