THIS MATERIAL IS A MARKETING COMMUNICATION.
ESG Monthly (February 2023)
THIS MONTH’S HIGHLIGHT: China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and seven other ministries issued a notice on launching a nationwide pilot program to promote the electrification of public vehicles from 2023 to 2025 (China Daily, February 2023). China aims to increase the share of electric vehicles in the public transport system to 80% in key areas, including bus and taxi services, by 2025. The country also set the target of adding the same number of public charging piles as the number of EVs newly added to the public transport sector (China Daily, February 2023). China, easily the biggest market for electric vehicles of all types, is the global leader in the adoption of e-buses. Approximately 59.1% of city buses and trolleybuses in Chinese cities were powered by pure electricity as of 2021. Over the past six years, China experienced a significant increase in the share of purely electric buses in its fleet, which was only 15.6% in 2016 (Statistica, February 2023). |
Commentary on ESG news and developments:
Globally…
- The Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved €5.5 billion of new financing to support new green energy, business, transport, health and education across Europe and around the world (European Investment Bank, February 2023).
- The World Bank priced a five-year US$ 50 million, principal protected Emission Reduction-Linked Bond that provides investors with a return linked to the issuance of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) expected to be produced by a project in Vietnam (The World Bank, February 2023).
- The United Kingdom (UK) financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has informed asset managers that it will be testing the ESG and sustainable investing claims made in their communications with investors, as part of its efforts to reduce greenwashing risk (Financial Conduct Authority, February 2023).
- The European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it will focus a greater proportion of its corporate bond purchases towards issuers with stronger climate performance, supporting the decarbonization of the Eurosystem’s €344 billion corporate bond portfolio (Bloomberg, February 2023).
- The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundations’ (IFRS) new global sustainability and climate disclosure standards will be effective as of January 2024, according to an announcement by the IFRS’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) (Funds Europe, February 2023).
In Asia Pacific Markets…
- China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and seven other ministries issued a notice on launching a nationwide pilot program to promote the electrification of public vehicles from 2023 to 2025 (China Daily, February 2023).
- Hong Kong plans its first digital green bond offering, said to target US$ 102 million proceeds. The tokenised notes would be a ‘pilot issuance’ to test regulatory framework and financial infrastructure, a top government official said last week (South China Morning Post, February 2023).
- Shenzhen Stock Exchange announced revised information disclosure rules for listed companies; amendments include strengthening ESG disclosure requirements for specific industries (Shenzhen Stock Exchange, February 2023).
- India will exclude renewable power companies from government contracts for between three and five years if they do not meet project completion deadlines, as the country looks to speed up green power projects (Reuters, February 2023).
- South Korea’s financial regulator strengthened its watch on bank corporate governance; the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said it would hold regular meetings with the board of major banks to help strengthen its oversight of the bank’s corporate governance (Yonhap News Agency, February 2023).
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