ESG News | Nov

Selected Monthly ESG News

ESG Investment

1. On October 30th, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests was comprehensively revised for the first time since the 2005s. It focuses on the elimination of gender discrimination in employment, bringing gender discrimination in work into the scope of labor security supervision, and explicitly requiring employers not to restrict the promotion, evaluation, and employment of professional and technical titles and positions of female workers because of marriage, pregnancy, maternity leave, breastfeeding, and other circumstances.

2. On November 3rd, 2022 APEC Business leaders China Forum was held to release the Practice Guide to Sustainable Chinese Enterprise Development (2022). The Guide formulates an ESG framework in line with the current situation of industrial development, sets 11 significant themes such as climate change, human capital, product liability, corporate governance, corporate behavior, and 36 key topics, and evaluates the current situation of sustainable development in ten key industries.

3. On November 20th, China Securities News reported that the national social security fund ESG portfolio is being tendered by domestic public fund companies, with more than 20 head public offerings participating in this tender. It is reported that the tender involves sustainable investment products and strategic emerging products, of which sustainable investment products are mainly invested in the field of ESG.

Green Finance

1. On November 1st, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the 2022 Annual Report on China's Policies and Actions to Deal with Climate Change, pointing out that China has achieved a win-win situation of economic development and pollution reduction and carbon reduction in 2021. According to preliminary calculations, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2021 are 3.8% lower than in 2020 and 50.8% lower than in 2005. Non-fossil energy accounts for 16.6% of disposable energy consumption, and coal consumption per unit of GDP reduced significantly.   

2. On November 10th, COP27 China Corner held a side meeting on the theme of "Clean Energy Development and Green Power conversion Application." By the end of November 2022, China's installed photovoltaic and wind power capacity had both exceeded 340 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world for many years in a row. The new energy industry chain leads the world, and the photovoltaic industry supplies more than 70 percent of the components to the global market.

Carbon Finance

1. On November 8th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and two other departments jointly issued the Carbon Emissions Peak Implementation for Building Materials Industry. The implementation puts forward the goal that during the 14th five-year Plan period, the unit energy consumption and carbon emission intensity of crucial products such as cement, glass, and ceramics should continue to decline. The total energy consumption per unit product of cement clinker should be reduced by more than 3%, and 1000 green and low-carbon production lines will be built in 2030 to ensure that the building materials industry will achieve a carbon peak by 2030.

2. On November 17th, the 13th China International Petrochemical Congress was held with the theme of "Sustainable and resilient New growth." Li Yongliang, deputy director of the Industrial Development Department of the China Petrochemical Federation, said that the petrochemical industry would enter the national carbon market at the end of the 14th five-year Plan. If annual carbon dioxide emissions exceed 26000 tons equivalent as the inclusion threshold, it is estimated that 2300 petrochemical enterprises will be included in the national carbon market.

Responsible Investment

1. On November 25th, the China Securities Investment Fund Industry Association issued The Action platform for the High-quality Development of individual Pensions served by the Public Offering Fund Industry. The document stressed that the public offering fund industry should respond to the diversified and multi-level needs of the public for old-age financial management and increase the intensity of product innovation and development. It is necessary to design fund products that can be easily understood and operated by ordinary people as a new option of wealth allocation and investment tools for individual pensions.