China SIF: The 2022 Sustainable Stock Exchange Roundtable co-hosted by UN SSE

China SIF: The 2022 Sustainable Stock Exchange Roundtable co-hosted by UN SSE

9 December 2022

The 2022 Sustainable Stock Exchange Roundtable took place on 9 Dec 2022 as part of the 10th annual China Sustainable Investment Forum that brought together domestic and international policymakers, standard setters, asset managers, financial intermediaries, as well as corporate and academic representatives to provide participants with latest development and insights, including:
  • Current practices of climate & sustainability disclosure in stock exchanges;
  • Challenges for listed companies to improve disclosure quality;
  • Prospects of future disclosure standards.
The Sustainable Stock Exchange Roundtable is co-hosted by China SIF, UN Sustainable Stock Exchanges (UN SSE) and the IFC-supported Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN). Speakers and participants include capital market regulators, stock exchanges as well as key stakeholders across the world. Stock exchanges around the world have paid more and more attention to sustainability disclosure with a special focus on climate information. The FSB’s TCFD recommendations have been adopted by several stock exchanges and the IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) will be building off the TCFD recommendations to set a common global standard. UN SSE Coordinator Anthony Miller delivered a keynote address to the roundtable, saying “We are currently in the era of regulation and standardization for sustainable finance. This will increase the importance of the market education programmes of stock exchanges and investment forums like China SIF, to ensure that all market participants can keep up with the rapid advancements in this field.” Speakers at the roundtable included:
  • GUO Peiyuan, Chairman, China Sustainable Investment Forum
  • YUAN Wei, Sustainable Banking and Finance Network (SBFN) Asia Coordinator
  • Anthony MILLER, Coordinator, UN SSE
  • Ralitza GERMANOVA, Global Disclosure Lead, ESG Department, IFC 
  • CHEN Feng, Director of International Cooperation, Shenzhen Stock Exchange 
  • ZHU Ling, CDP China Office
  • Harold PAUWELS, Standards Director, Global Reporting Initiative
  • Daniel WISEMAN, Head of Asia-Pacific Policy, Principles for Responsible Investment
  • Ignatius Denny WICAKSONO, Indonesia Stock Exchange
  • Rhys Gordon-Jones, Acting Minister Counsellor, Financial and Professional Services, British Embassy

Speakers at the China SIF Sustainable Stock Exchange Roundtable

Over the past year, 55 stock exchanges globally have hosted training for their market specifically on climate-related financial disclosures and the TCFD. The UN SSE, IFC and CDP have facilitated 188 hours of training in collaboration with stock exchanges to help upskill market participants on the growing demand for climate-resilient companies and climate-related disclosures. Building on the UN SSE initiative’s Model Guidance on Climate Disclosures and the TCFD’s recommendations, this interactive training allows companies to ask experts key questions to overcome hurdles and accelerate their climate-disclosure journeys. Through this training, the UN SSE, CDP, IFC and UN SSE Partner Exchanges have provided 14,868 participants with bespoke and interactive training to support their climate-disclosure journeys. To learn more about this training, see the article Three lessons from 200 hours of TCFD training for 15,000 global participants.

About the SSE

​The SSE initiative is a UN Partnership Programme organised by UNCTAD, the UN Global Compact, UNEP FI and the PRI. The SSE’s mission is to provide a global platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, companies (issuers), regulators, policymakers and relevant international organizations, can enhance performance on ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) issues and encourage sustainable investment, including the financing of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The SSE seeks to achieve this mission through an integrated programme of conducting evidence-based policy analysis, facilitating a network and forum for multi-stakeholder consensus-building, and providing technical assistance and advisory services.