意見交流園地 – Karen Ho / Idea Exchange – Karen Ho

上星期，我們聚焦綠色債券市場，討論香港以至全球的綠色金融發展。

今個星期，我將會講解一下在香港制定政策的官員如何提高股票市場發行人在環境、社會和管治（ESG）數據披露方面的要求。

去年12月，香港交易所發布了ESG報告指引的諮詢總結。他們將修訂上市規則加強ESG披露要求，新修訂將由2020年7月1日或其後開始的財政年度起生效。

要求發行人披露的主要修訂包括：

  1. 加設強制披露要求：
    ．載有董事會對ESG事宜的考量的董事會聲明；
    ．有關匯報原則──「重要性」、「量化」以及「一致性」的應用；及
    ．解釋ESG報告的匯報範圍；
  2. 對公司產生影響的重大氣候相關事宜；
  3. 補充「環境」的關鍵績效指標，並須披露相關目標；
  4. 將所有「社會」關鍵績效指標的披露責任提升至「不遵守就解釋」。

這些改變的意義是什麼？

所有持分者，包括作為散戶投資者的你和我、強積金供款人、專業投資社群、或作為上市公司的供應商或客戶，都能受惠於ESG披露要求修訂，以作出更理想的投資或業務決策。大眾將因此而加深了解企業董事會在迎接「可持續未來」這個新時代中的準備程度、如何確定其業務的重大風險（例如與氣候相關的風險）以及是否設定了目標和指標、以適應不斷增長的ESG需求。

當世界各地的政策官員都將注意力轉向可持續金融，香港在此方面的積極發展將幫助我們在全球保持競爭力。

如欲了解更多資訊，請瀏覽以下網址：
https://www.hkex.com.hk/-/media/HKEX-Market/News/Market-Consultations/2016-Present/May-2019-Review-of-ESG-Guide/Conclusions-(December-2019)/cp201905cc.pdf?la=en
https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/policymakers-across-the-world-turn-their-attention-to-sustainable-finance/

In our blog last week, we discussed about the Green Finance development in Hong Kong and the rest of the world with a focus of the Green Bonds market.

This week we will learn more about how policy makers in Hong Kong has ramped up their requirements to issuers in the equities market in regards to their disclosure on their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data.

In December last year, the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong published their conclusion of the ESG guide consultations. They will strengthen the ESG disclosure requirement by making changes to the listing rule, effective for the financial years commencing on or after 1 July 2020.

Key changes on the required disclosure by issuers include:

  1. New Mandatory disclosure requirements:
    ．a board statement setting out the board’s oversight of ESG matters;
    ．application of Reporting Principles “materiality”, “quantitative” and “consistency”; and
    ．explanation of reporting boundaries of ESG reports;
  2. Significant climate-related issues impacting the company;
  3. Additional “Environmental” key performance indicators (KPIs) to require disclosure of relevant targets;
  4. Upgrading the disclosure obligation of all “Social” KPIs to “comply or explain”

What does it mean to us?

All stakeholders, including you and me as retail investors, or MPF contributors, the professional investing communities, or as a suppliers or customers of a listed company, would now be empowered with improved ESG disclosure to help you make a better investment or business decision. All of us would be able to understand how prepared the Board of a company are in embracing the new era of Sustainable Future, how they identify material risk to their business, such as Climate related risk, and are they setting up targets and metrics and being resilient to increasing demands on addressing ESG issues.

This positive development in Hong Kong, would help us to stay competitive to the rest of the world, while all policy makers across the world has turn their attention to sustainable finance.

For more information, please visit:
https://www.hkex.com.hk/-/media/HKEX-Market/News/Market-Consultations/2016-Present/May-2019-Review-of-ESG-Guide/Conclusions-(December-2019)/cp201905cc.pdf?la=en
https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/policymakers-across-the-world-turn-their-attention-to-sustainable-finance/

Published by foehk@foe.org.hk