New Zealand Makes Climate Reporting Compulsory
New Zealand has become the first country in the world to make climate risk reporting mandatory for banks, asset managers and insurers.
Greater Bay Area Green Finance Alliance Officially Launched
The Hong Kong Green Finance Association (“HKGFA”) announced the official launch of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Green Finance Alliance (“GBA-GFA”) at the inaugural launch ceremony on 4 September. The Alliance aims to facilitate the greening of the Greater Bay Area.
Frequently asked questions new ESG reporting requirements
The new ESG requirements announced on 18 December 2019 as part of the HKEX’s consultation conclusions on review of the ESG reporting guide and related listing rules apply to HK-listed companies with financial years commencing on or after 1 July 2020.
The People’s Bank of China and other two ministries solicit public opinions on the “Catalogue of Green Bond Endorsed Projects”
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.
Notice of the General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission on organising the construction of green industry demonstration bases
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.
HKEX opens a new exchange “STAGE” to build a database of sustainable and green financial products
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.
What can we learn from Amazon’s sustainability policies?
As the world starts to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, there is no better opportunity than building a greener and more sustainable world. As an e-commerce giant, Amazon’s strategies and roadmap of sustainability shows important aspects for business and corporate to learn from.
Updated Reporting Standard – GRI 306: WASTE 2020
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.
China-UK financial institutions released climate and environment disclosure pilot 2019 progress report
The Chinese and UK governments, at the 9th UK–China Economic and Financial Dialogue held on 15 December 2017, agreed to strengthen green finance cooperation and encouraged financial institutions of the two countries to jointly pilot climate and environmental information disclosure. The pilot is a four-year initiative, including one year of preparation and three years of action. 2019 was the second year of the pilot. The following passage is going to show the progress and main goals of the pilot.
Climate Change and ESG Development
In the point of view of how the pandemic impacts climate, this passage is going to assess and recommend on how companies can apply ESG mindset to achieve sustainable development in the Post-COVID-19 world.
A Culture of Health for Business (COH4B)
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.
What is the future of ESG after the pandemic?
The huge slap of this COVID-19 epidemic on most enterprises made it hard for us to imagine how the aftermath and indirect impacts of the disaster will change the socio-economic structure and business development models. In the post-pandemic era, how to cumulate the experience from setbacks and use the brand new financial values and management system called‘ESG’to empower corporate sustainability development will be a new trend of global development.
Why should companies be training about ESG?
With the increasing attention on the “informed market”, ESG information becomes more and more important to investors, who see an organised package of non-financial performance of companies as a powerful auxiliary tool-kit for analysis in making investment decisions. Providing sufficient ESG information not only informs investors in decision-making, but also allows them to gain confidence about the business development of a company in the long-term prospect.
How to take advantage of GRI Standards to facilitate the disclosire under TCFD recommendations?
Business and climate change have mutual impacts on each other. Business influences climate change with climate-related reporting today laying more emphasis on different business models’ carbon footprint while climate change does sway business models to some extent with the reporting promoted by Task Force on Climate-related financial disclosures (TCFD) focusing on financial implications of climate change on business models.
Content Development
Content development is the stage of transformation where all the materials and data being collected turn into the actual report that is being presented. It is, however, more than just a “writing-up”, but an on-going process of narrative development [...]
Building report content: data collection
Data collection is a very time-consuming activity and requires collaborative efforts. It should be a customised and unique process for the organisation and therefore remains a fairly flexible element in the sustainability reporting process. Therefore, there is no strict [...]