Sustainability a key goal for firms listed on Shanghai bourse

Companies trading at the Shanghai Stock Exchange have been attaching greater importance to sustainable development, proven by the fact that more than half of the listed companies disclosed social responsibility reports or reports on environment, social and governance last year, according to a report released by the Shanghai bourse on Tuesday.

Specifically, a total of 1,149 listed companies disclosed such reports in 2023, up 3.6 percentage points from a year earlier.

Nearly 700 companies have themed their ESG reports on the external impact on their production and operations while another 107 have focused on discussing the risks and opportunities in their ESG reports.

While 786 companies have circulated ESG-related reports for at least three consecutive years, 522 of them have made such release for more than five years in a row. It should be noted that 313 companies have updated their ESG reports for over 10 consecutive years, including Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd, which has made such disclosure for 21 years.

Large-cap blue-chip companies, constituent companies for benchmark indexes such as SSE 180 and those making dual listings in both the onshore and offshore markets are more active in releasing sustainability reports, according to the exchange.

Green transition have been advancing steadily at the Shanghai bourse. According to the ESG reports and annual fiscal reports for 2023, a total of 1,896 SSE-listed companies, or 83.45 percent of all the SSE-listed companies, established environmental protection mechanisms in 2023, which was equal to about 290 billion yuan ($40 billion) of investment in environmental protection.

Furthermore, 811 companies disclosed total carbon emission figures in their annual or ESG-related reports, while 1,598 companies reported on carbon reduction measures and their effectiveness. Over 400 companies engaged external organizations to conduct carbon emissions accounting.

It can be seen that SSE-listed companies have been improving their technology innovation capabilities to better serve their green development goals, according to the SSE.

Poverty alleviation and rural revitalization are also high on the agenda of the SSE-listed companies' sustainability efforts. About 1,177 SSE-listed companies have invested over 100 billion yuan in total to promote the sustainable and high-quality development of local industries through various re-lending and re-discounting measures such as fund assistance, consumption assistance, industrial assistance, employment assistance, talent revitalization, agriculture-related loans, agricultural and small business support, according to the report.

The SSE released on April 14 the guidelines regarding listed companies' disclosure of sustainability reports. The guidelines, which took effect on May 1, have come up with differentiated disclosure requirements by covering 21 major themes, including climate change, rural revitalization and innovation-driven growth.