The ESG Horizon

International Business Council (IBC), in collaboration with the Big Four Accounting Firms, have been exploring a set of universal, material ESG metrics and recommended disclosures that could be reflected in the mainstream annual reports of companies on a consistent basis across industry sectors and countries.

As a world-renowned fast-food chain, McDonald’s restaurant and value chain covers almost every corner of the world. Therefore, no matter positive or negative, its every move is going to have great influence on the world.

Science-based targets initiative (SBTi) offers a plethora of advantages over incremental GHG reduction targets for businesses and importantly, assists companies to identify and promote innovative approaches to setting ambitious and meaningful corporate GHG reduction targets consistent with the best available climate science.

New Zealand has become the first country in the world to make climate risk reporting mandatory for banks, asset managers and insurers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.