On November 25, 2022, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (SEHK) published a report on its analysis of ESG practice disclosure in Hong Kong (the Report). The Report sets out the SEHK’s findings of their review of compliance by Hong Kong issuers of the new ESG requirements implemented in July 2020, which focused on board governance, climate change, and other ESG issues (2020 Enhancements). We reported here on the related amendments to the SEHK’s Corporate Governance Code and the Listing Rules addressing the link between ESG and good corporate governance, ESG reporting and gender diversity.

Continue Reading Analysis of ESG Practice Disclosure by Hong Kong Stock Exchange

During last year’s COP26, the UK Government announced that it would mandate the disclosure of listed companies’ and financial institutions’ net zero transition plan, and that it would form a taskforce to assist private sector actors in doing so.

Coinciding with the start of COP27, the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce (“TPT”) – a taskforce with a mandate from His Majesty’s Treasury to help enable private sector actors in the UK create robust climate transition plans to fulfil their net zero commitments – on 8 November 2022, published, for consultation, its new Disclosure Framework for companies to disclose their climate transition plans.

Importantly, the Disclosure Framework draws on existing and emerging disclosure regimes, such as the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (“TCFD”) Recommendations and the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (“ISSB”) Sustainability Disclosure Standards (for more information on the TCFD and ISSB regimes, read our previous blog posts here, here, here and here).

The TPT’s publication of its Disclosure Framework recommendations is supplemented by the TPT’s Implementation Guidance. The Implementation Guidance sets out practical steps to help private sector actors develop climate transition plans, as well as information on when, where and how to disclose such plans.

Continue Reading Climate Disclosure: the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce launches ‘gold standard’ for climate transition plans

The sheer volume of capital flows into sustainable, or ESG-focused, funds and products over recent months reflects the rapidly increasing number of investors with ESG-related preferences, or demands, when selecting those investments.  Evaluating, and comparing, the ESG credentials of different investment products presents significant difficulties, however, in circumstances where information and disclosures about those products – and even the terminology used – are, at best, inconsistent, and often incomplete; and, at worst, may attract accusations of “greenwashing”, by using marketing materials to mislead investors about the ESG approaches used in their products.

Continue Reading The CFA Institute releases Global ESG Disclosure Standards for Investment Products

On June 28, 2021, the Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF), a consultative and advisory group to the Trustees of the IFRS Foundation (Foundation), will meet to update its members on the status of the Foundation’s sustainability reporting project.

The ASAF update reported on (1) the April 2021 Feedback Statement (Feedback Statement) to the earlier September 2020 Consultation Paper and (2) the Exposure Draft (Exposure Draft) of proposed targeted amendments to the Foundation’s Constitution (Constitution) to accommodate a new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) that would set proposed IFRS Sustainability Standards, comments on which are due by July 29, 2021.

Continue Reading Setting Standards for the Standard-Setters: Recent Developments in the IFRS Foundation’s Sustainability Reporting Project