The Taiwan Monthly
ESG
The TWSE and Cathay Financial holdings jointly organized the “2024 Cathay Sustainable Finance and Climate Change Summit” to assist enterprises in sustainability transformation
The “2024 Cathay Sustainable Finance and Climate Change Summit” jointly organized by the TWSE and Cathay Financial Holdings was successfully concluded on July 3. With the theme of “Net Zero Transformation Competitiveness,” it focused on net zero solutions and sustainable finance. The event was conducted both physically and online along with reaching a new record in participation at approximately 4,800 attendees to jointly explore important trends and practical developments in sustainable finance and climate change. Statistics show that the enterprises present at the meeting represented 82% of the value of the Taiwan stock market and were responsible for 54% of its carbon emissions. The feedback was very enthusiastic, fully demonstrating the determination of Taiwanese enterprises to value sustainability and net zero.
At the forum, Sherman Lin, Chairman of the TWSE, gave a keynote speech on “Trend Analysis: Climate Action of the International Capital Market to Usher in the Carbon Price Era,” stating that as an important platform for the capital market, the TWSE actively cooperates with regulatory authorities to promote sustainable development policies and help listed companies achieve the net-zero emission target by 2050. Under the four main pillars of governance, transparency, digitization and innovation, the TWSE focuses on promoting the following projects in accordance with the “Sustainable Development Action Plans for TWSE- and TPEx-Listed Companies (2023)”:
1. Lead the net-zero sustainable governance of enterprises: Promote the greenhouse gas inventory disclosure and data assurance of TWSE- and TPEx-Listed companies, encourage the establishment of sustainability development committees, and establish the Taiwan Carbon Solution Exchange to promote a quota-reduction trading mechanism and cultivate ESG net zero sustainable talents.
2. Enhance transparency in sustainable information disclosure: Promote Taiwan’s compliance with IFRS sustainable disclosure standards, which TWSE- and TPEx-Listed companies shall apply from 2026 to 2028 in stages based on their capital size, and require all TWSE- and TPEx-Listed companies to prepare and file a sustainability report starting from 2025.
3. Promote ESG evaluation and digitization: Study the transformation of Corporate Governance Evaluation into ESG evaluation, and establish a one-stop integrated query website for the ESG Digital Platform and the ESG InfoHub, in order to augment sustainability information transparency and provide decision-making references for enterprises and investors.
4. Strengthen communication with stakeholders: Continuously advance the investor relations platform, and promote engagement with institutional investors to guide capital investment in sustainable innovative actions.
Chairman Lin of the TWSE also pointed out that it is now an era when carbon emissions are valuable, and Taiwanese enterprises have an increasing demand for carbon risk management. The TWSE assists enterprises in facing the challenge of sustainability transformation through four major actions: firstly, encouraging enterprises to disclose sustainability information, actively complying with international standards, and enhancing the breadth and quality of sustainability information disclosure; secondly, based on the Corporate Governance Evaluation framework, the TWSE will sequentially construct an ESG evaluation mechanism within three years to incentivize enterprises to reduce carbon emissions through external evaluation and shape a market culture of sustainable value; thirdly, in order to assist enterprises in strengthening communication with stakeholders, the TWSE and its subsidiary - Index Plus Corporation will continue assisting enterprises in IR matching and improving value-added services for ESG information, enhancing the connectivity between small and medium-sized enterprises and institutional investors, promoting IR and ESG engagements, and building corporate climate resilience. Finally, the TWSE and the Taiwan Carbon Solution Exchange will work together to promote carbon credit trading; in addition to introducing international carbon credits, it is expected that a trading platform for domestic carbon credits will be launched by the end of this year to assist enterprises in completing the last mile of net zero and meeting the carbon neutrality requirements of the international supply chain, and to support the development of the net zero innovation industry to address corporate carbon anxiety.
Since 2020, the TWSE has been collaborating with Cathay Financial Holdings to jointly organize the Climate Change Summit to contribute to sustainability transformation, and the TWSE has the goal to lead Taiwanese enterprises to achieve the goal of net zero transformation through public initiatives on climate action and the influence of exchanges at the forum.
For further information, please contact Mr. Yen at 1413@twse.com.tw.