Regulatory Updates

On May 29, 2020, the People's Bank of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission solicited public opinions on the drafting of the "Catalogue of Green Bond Endorsed Projects (2020 Edition)". The new Catalogue is of paramount importance to the sustainable economic and social development, and industrial green transformation and upgrading.

In order to promote the development of green industries, the General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission recently issued the "Notice on Organising the Construction of Green Industry Demonstration Bases." The notice proposes that a group of industrial parks will be selected for the construction of green industry demonstration bases. It is aimed that, by 2025, the construction of green industry demonstration bases will make phased progress and cultivate a group of leading green industry enterprises.

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited announced that it plans to establish a sustainable and green exchange named "STAGE". It is described as Asia’s first sustainable financial information platform. It aims to establish a bond and exchange traded product (ETP) information database within the year, covering sustainability bonds, green bonds and social bonds listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and other ESG-related ETPs.

GRI announced the launch of GRI 306: Waste 2020, the first globally applicable tool for organisations to report and communicate on their waste impacts. GRI 306: Waste 2020 reflects global best practices on waste management and will be effective for reports and other materials published on or after 1 January 2022.

With increasing awareness of social and population health impacts private sectors have, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have been working on a project named Culture of Health for Business (COH4B), aiming to push the companies to think differently on how they can affect the population health and society, through exploring business practices that have discrete health and business impacts.

On 18 December 2019, The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (the Exchange) published the conclusions to its consultation [...]

It has been widely recognised that the healthy ESG development, in particular the proliferation of effective ESG reporting among [...]

With a long history of trade, rapid urbanisation, dramatic economic growth, transformative social upheaval, earthshaking alteration of people's perceived [...]

The Hong Kong Exchangs (HKEx) published a consultation paper of the ESG Reporting Guide in May 2019, mandating all listed companies to strengthen their disclosure of relevant ESG topics further. The public opinions towards such proposed update are widely divergent, among which some large enterprises even oppose the stricter and more transparent information disclosure of corporate environmental, social and governance performance.

Earlier this year, HKEx has published the consultation paper amending the reporting Guide with reference to Task force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures ('TCFD'), in order to meet investors' and stakeholders' expectations and to facilitate the inclusion of additional core elements in the ESG report. The changes suggested in the consultation paper are listed as below.