China issues draft of corporate sustainability disclosure standards

To establish a nationwide unified sustainability disclosure system

In May, 2024, the China’s Ministry of Finance released a draft named “Corporate sustainability disclosure standards: Basic principles” and started soliciting comments. The deadline for comments is June 24, 2024.

According to the explanatory document released at the same time, this standard was developed based on the IFRS S1 “General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-Related Financial Information” published by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in June 2023.

The standard sets out the general provisions, disclosure objectives, information quality requirements and general requirements for the corporate sustainability disclosure.

In addition to the “basic principles” issued this time, “specific principles” that clarify the specific requirements for information disclosure for each of the environmental (E), social (S), and governance (G) topics of sustainability, and “application guidelines” that provide detailed rules and examples for application in each industry are also scheduled to be published in the future. The goal is to establish a nationwide unified sustainability disclosure system by 2030.

Contents of the sustainability disclosure standard

The standard consists of the following six paragraphs and 33 articles.

• Paragraph 1: General principles. The application scope and reporting entities are specified.
• Paragraph 2: Disclosure objectives and principles. Disclosure objectives of the sustainability and the information users are specified.
• Paragraph 3: Requirements for information quality. Six quality requirements for the sustainability information disclosed by the corporate are specified.
• Paragraph 4: Disclosure elements. Four elements of the sustainability information to be disclosed are specified.
• Paragraph 5: Other disclosure requirements. Disclosure requirements such as the report period and the compliance declaration are specified.
• Paragraph 6: Supplementary provisions.

Implementation of the sustainability disclosure standard

According to the explanatory document of the draft, the standard will be implemented in a phased approach rather than a “one -size fits-all” mandatory approach.

• From listed companies to non-listed companies
• From the qualitative requirements to quantitative requirements
• From voluntary disclosure to mandatory disclosure

Nationwide unified sustainability disclosure system

According to the explanatory document, the nationwide unified sustainability disclosure system will be developed as follows.

Sustainability disclosure system

• Basic principles
• Specific principles

1. Environment (E)
2. Social (S)
3. Governance (G)

• Application guideline

1. Application guideline for industries
2. Application guideline for standards

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