Author: Helena Zhu

19 May INSIGHTS | SEC Climate Disclosure Proposal: A Step Towards Mandatory Climate Disclosure in the United States

Posted at 15:08 by Helena Zhu

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released its long-anticipated proposal for climate-related financial disclosure in March 2022. The proposal is historic as it marks the first effort by any US financial regulator to standardize climate-related disclosure. Back in June 2021, the finance ministers and...

10 May BNP Paribas Launches Sustainable Asian Cities Bond

Posted at 16:38 by Helena Zhu

BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM), the asset management arm of BNP Paribas [BNP:FP], has launched the Sustainable Asian Cities Bond, a new fixed income strategy aiming to support sustainable urbanization in Asian cities, as reported by ESG Today on May 9. The fund is...

10 May HSBC Launches Discretionary Biodiversity Mandate in Asia

Posted at 14:52 by Helena Zhu

HSBC [HSBC:US] has launched a Global Biodiversity Discretionary Strategy for its Global Private Banking (GPB) services in Asia, as reported by The Asset on May 4. Managed by Lombard Odier, a founding member of the Natural Capital Investment Alliance, the strategy marks the bank’s first...

28 Apr INSIGHTS | China’s First ESG Disclosure Guidance

Posted at 14:22 by Helena Zhu

As more enterprises around the world adopt ESG standards for non-financial information disclosure, Chinese enterprises face a pressing need to catch up as they compete in markets with rising demand for quality ESG data. Many globally recognized and most prevalent standards, such as the GRI...

10 Mar INSIGHTS | Time to Adapt: Financing for a Warming World

Posted at 16:15 by Helena Zhu

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world’s leading authority on climate science, released the “Working Group II: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability Report” (WG2 report) on February 27, 2022, as the second part of its sixth assessment report (AR6). The 3675-page report summarized the...

17 Feb INSIGHT | Climate Risk Stress Testing in the Banking Industry

Posted at 15:40 by Helena Zhu

Stress testing is not an unfamiliar term to the financial sector. Ever since the global financial crisis, financial institutions have used stress tests as a key tool for assessing risks and resiliency of the financial system as well as individual institutions. With climate change increasingly...

13 Jan Kickstarting Product Carbon Footprinting in China

Posted at 16:20 by Helena Zhu

On January 5, the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning (CAEP) released the China Products Carbon Footprint Factors Database (中国产品全生命周期温室气体排放系数集), the first open, transparent, and continuously updated product carbon footprinting (PCF) emission factor database in China. The development of this database involved voluntary contributions from 54...

16 Dec Tackling the Other Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Methane

Posted at 14:25 by Helena Zhu

The conversation around decarbonization and climate change mitigation has long been dominated by the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most common greenhouse gas. However, during this year’s United Nations climate summit COP26, methane as another form of greenhouse gas rose to the spotlight in...

06 Dec HKEX Introduces ESG Metrics Display and Net-Zero Guide for Listed Companies

Posted at 16:41 by Helena Zhu

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) [0388:HK] announced the release of the Net-Zero Guide for Business along with a new service to display ESG metrics for HKEX-listed companies, according to the group’s news release on December 2. The two initiatives aim to promote green...

18 Nov Common Ground Taxonomy: Consolidation of China and EU Green Definitions

Posted at 15:00 by Helena Zhu

The Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT), a comparative study of the green taxonomies of China and the EU, was published by the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) on November 4 at the COP26. The CGT’s mission was to comprehensively assess existing taxonomies and identify commonalities...

09 Nov PBoC Launches Lending Tool to Support Carbon Emission Reduction

Posted at 14:24 by Helena Zhu

China’s central bank PBoC launched a new monetary policy tool to incentivize lending for carbon emission reduction activities on November 8, as reported by Caixin on November 9. The new policy tool mandated that interest rates for carbon emission reduction loans should be close to...

08 Nov Indonesia’s Pertamina, ExxonMobil Agree on USD500m CCS Project in Indonesia

Posted at 15:56 by Helena Zhu

An Indonesian carbon capture and storage (CCS) project undertaken by Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina and US energy giant ExxonMobil [XOM:US] is expected to cost USD500m, as reported by Reuters on November 8. Pertamina and ExxonMobil signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on...

08 Nov IPSF Releases Common Ground Taxonomy Built on EU, China Green Taxonomies

Posted at 15:46 by Helena Zhu

The International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) on November 4 released the Common Ground Taxonomy, a green investment classification system built on the green taxonomies of the EU and China, as reported by Caixin Global on November 5. Developed over two years, the Common Ground...

04 Nov IFRS Announces New Framework ISSB, Consolidation of CDSB and VRF Standards

Posted at 11:59 by Helena Zhu

The IFRS Foundation launched the new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to develop a comprehensive global baseline of high-quality sustainability disclosure standards for investors’ information needs, according to the IFRS Foundation’s website on November 3. The ISSB will develop IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, including disclosure...