Webinar: “Setting a Global Standard for Climate Change Disclosure”

Event Outline

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (Tokyo) sponsored a webinar on 19 March 2021 at which panelists shared their views on the desirable way forward for adequate corporate disclosure on climate change risk. Around 230 stakeholders with different business background from Japan and other regions participated.

The four panelists, namely, Mr Ashley Ian Alder, Chief Executive Officer of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, Mr Tokio Morita, Vice Minister for International Affairs of the Financial Services Agency, Japan, Professor Jhinyoung Shin, Professor of Finance of School of Business at Yonsei University, and Ms Miyuki Zeniya, Head of Sustainable Finance at The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, discussed the issue of establishing an international set of disclosure standards on climate change for listed companies, impacts of such disclosure requirement on economies and businesses, as well as challenges ahead.

In Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission announced in December 2020 that listed companies will have to disclose the financial impact of climate change on their businesses by 2025. As Mr Alder, who is also the Chairman of the Board of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), stated at the webinar, “while Hong Kong as a geographical area is quite small, Hong Kong’s financial market footprint is enormous. If the climate related goals are embedded in the financial market in Hong Kong, the impact is far-reaching”.

Ashley Ian Alder, Chief Executive Officer of Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong (bottom) and other speakers at the webinar.