Full Name
Harjinder Singh
Job Title
Associate Professor
Company
Curtin University
Speaker Bio
Harjinder Singh is an industry-focussed academic having an educational strategy formed by 10 years in private practice both in Australia and overseas as an assurance provider and practicing auditor. As a Chartered Accountant, Harj is well versed with auditing and governance best practices and uses these capabilities heavily in his teaching and engagement activities such as climate risk and carbon accounting (measurement, recording, verification and reporting), ESG assurance, financial accountability and operationalising sustainable operations in the not-for-profit and commercial sectors.
As a result of his successes in engaging with industry across a number of platforms, Harj has been recently appointed to the Australian Accounting Standards Board’s (AASB) Climate Research’s Climate Research Expert List. This role requires assessing stakeholder feedback on the Australian Climate Related Financial Disclosure Standards Exposure Draft and being involved with the final mandatory Climate Reporting Standards. This appointment therefore shapes the future reporting and disclosure requirements of the climate related and sustainability landscape in Australia. Harj’s other recently completed major work, with another colleague from the School of Accounting, Finance and Economics (and the WA School of Mines at Curtin) for the Cooperative Research Centre for Transformations in Mining Economies (CRC TiME) has resulted in the development and implementation of a natural capital accounting framework in the WA mining sector, the first in Australia. Such a framework is critical to the future operations of the mining sector seeking community and regulatory support for its Social License to Operate (SLO) so that the sector can continue to mine and now also process many of the critical minerals needed to fund Australia’s Energy Transition towards its net zero 2030 commitment.
Harj’s research is circulated widely not only in publications in A* and A-ranked journals but he engages with various regulatory agencies shaping national and international public policy to help resolve pressing issues of national and international significance.
Harjinder Singh