Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) released its research statistics on the environmental disclosures of Shenzhen-listed companies. The research shows over 90% (2,300+) of the listed companies in Shenzhen disclosed their social responsibility performance in their annual reports, and 550+ listed companies，or one in five, released independent CSR or ESG reports in FY 2021. The overall disclosure statistics indicates a significant increase in environmental disclosure, with added breadth and depth of disclosure of critical environmental issues.
The White Paper also highlighted 10 outstanding environmental disclosure cases of listed companies from seven industries, including electric power equipment, automobiles, pharmaceutical biology, etc. SZSE concluded with next stesp in guiding capital to focus on sustainable development and encourage the development of environmental disclosure standards.
The Europe Central Bank (ECB) launched a series of new statistical indicators aimed at analyzing climate-related risks in the financial sector and track the progress of the sustainable finance market on Jan 24. Named “Towards Climate-related Statistical indicators” and a part of the ECB’s climate action plan launched in July 2022, this series covers three areas of sustainable finance, carbon emissions financed by financial institutions, and climate-related physical risks.
ECB noted that the new indicators are a work in progress and analytical data sometimes have certain limitations. However, initial experimental statistics have shown increasing share of euro area debt securities labelled as green or sustainable. ECB will also work together with the national central banks to improve the data methodology.
Morningstar published Global Sustainable Fund Flows report for Q4 2022 on 26 January. The report indicated that global sustainable funds attracted USD 37 billion of net new money in Q4 2022, 50% higher than the USD 24.5 billion in Q3. Compared to the USD 200 billion of net withdrawals in the boarder market over Q4, the recovering fund flow of the global sustainable fund shows its resilient nature relative to the boarder market.
However, the rebound in sustainable fund flows was felt only in three regions of Europe, Australia, and Canada. Europe especially continued to capture most of the inflows, making up the lion's share of the sustainable fund landscape with 83% of global sustainable fund assets. While the rest of the world, including the United States and Japan, experienced outflow.
29 January, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) published a statement on extending to support the implementation of three structural monetary policy tools related to green finance. The statement announced to extend Carbon Emission Reduction Support Instrument until the end of 2024, the Special Refinancing Loan to Support Clean and Efficient Use of Coal until the end of 2023, and the Special Refinancing Loan for Transport Logistics until the end of June 2023. PBoC also highlighted to keep increasing its support in key sectors and weak segments of the national economy in the next stage, such as inclusive finance, green development, sci-tech innovation and infrastructure construction.
Speaking on a panel on “Stewarding Responsible Capitalism” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the IFRS Foundation Chair Erkki Liikanen revealed that ISSB will be releasing the finalized versions for the first global standards for sustainability and climate-related reporting in June of this year. In terms of next steps for the ISSB, Liikanen said that following the release of the initial standards this year, the board will consult on a series of issues, including reporting on biodiversity, human capital and human rights, as well on the connectivity of financial reporting with sustainability reporting.