Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will soon need to disclose risks related to climate change in line with emerging global standards, the city’s top financial regulator said Wednesday.
(Bloomberg) — Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will soon need to disclose risks related to climate change in line with emerging global standards, the city’s top financial regulator said Wednesday.
The city’s baseline will draw on standards set by the International Sustainability Standards Board, Julia Leung, the new chief executive officer of the Securities and Futures Commission, told reporters, allowing for possible modifications.
“Hong Kong as a major international financial center bears the responsibility to comply with this threshold,” she said. “We are still deciding the final details, and we will consider certain limitations too. We hope the framework can be as flexible and scalable as possible, but remain a high quality one.”
There’s too little company-specific information on climate risk, and Hong Kong’s eventual rules will also provide training and help firms collect the appropriate data, she said.
The Securities and Futures Commission required fund managers to report climate-related risks starting last year. As of now, the Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd. asks listed companies to disclose board-level policies on climate and environmental, social and governance initiatives, but the reporting is still considered voluntary.
(Corrects spelling of Julia Leung’s first name.)
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