The great bulk of Australia's largest listed companies are failing to disclose their exposures to climate change even as regulators – and some of the big banks – are beginning to act.

Of the top 200 ASX-listed companies, 167 leave large gaps in their disclosures such as omitting strategies on how they plan to deal with climate-related threats, Emma Herd, chief executive of the Investor Group on Climate Change, told a Senate inquiry hearingin Sydney.

"Only about 40 per cent of them publicly acknowledge climate change as a risk," Ms Herd said, citing figures from a survey done in collaboration with 35 super funds with $450 billion in assets. Disclosure in Australia "is still low [versus other nations], and compared to where it needs to be".

The hearing into carbon risk comes a day after major banks were grilled by a separate House economics committee, with ANZ's chief executive Shayne Elliott saying his bank had recently extended its review of climate risks from sectors such as agriculture to its mortgage business.