Beijing – China’s Ministry of Finance has released a draft guideline on corporate sustainability disclosures for consultation, and says it aims to create a nationwide system of standards by 2030.

Greenpeace East Asia Beijing-based climate and energy campaigner Yuan Yuan (she/her) said: 

“Unified disclosure standards would be a game-changer. When we talk about ambition, accountability, or even climate leadership – transparency is central to all of it. Chinese financial institutions frequently claim that a lack of unified standards for corporate disclosure and poor data availability hinders their ability to assess risk when it comes to climate change. This extends to becoming a hurdle in developing transition plans. Even between asset managers inside China, peer-to-peer visibility would be a major avenue to stronger ambition that is currently lacking. 

“As corporate disclosure improves, Chinese financial institutions will be one of the major benefactors. Now, there is insight into how corporates are responding to climate change. So, asset managers in particular should seize this opportunity. Asset managers should improve their requirements for corporations to disclose information. And asset managers themselves need to improve their own relevant disclosures of climate-related risks in their investment and financing activities related to corporations.

“In the last couple of years, Chinese financial institutions are catching up to investors’ interest in ESG investing. Chinese asset managers have begun offering dedicated ‘net zero funds’. Improving disclosure standards will ensure that these funds don’t greenwash high-emissions assets or companies.” 

In 2022, Greenpeace East Asia released an analysis of China’s 15 leading asset managers and 37 related mutual funds. Low willingness to disclose climate impact of assets under management was a consistent trend – 11 of the 15 firms had not put forward any emissions info.

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