Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards
The Chinese Ministry of Finance releases a pilot version of the Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards, aimed at providing guidance for companies on sustainable disclosure.
In May 2024, the Chinese Ministry of Finance released a draft of the Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards, soliciting opinions from stakeholders on establishing a sustainable disclosure system for Chinese enterprises.
Related Post: China Releases Draft of General Standards for Corporate Sustainable Disclosure
Introduction to Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards
The Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards are part of the Chinese corporate sustainability disclosure standards, which provide a basis for the development of specific standards and application guidelines. The sustainable disclosure system for Chinese enterprises consists of:
- General Standards: Provide concept, principles, methods, objectives, and other general requirements for sustainable information disclosure by enterprises.
- Specific Standards: Provide requirements for disclosure on sustainable themes related to the environment, society, and governance.
- Application Guidelines: Provide explanations and case studies for specific standards to assist enterprises in carrying out information disclosure.
China plans to release the General Standards, Specific Standards and Application Guidelines by 2027, and establish a complete sustainable disclosure system by 2030. Enterprises can voluntarily implement the pilot version of the General Standards released this time.
Contents of Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards
The Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards consist of six parts, namely:
- General provisions: Stipulate the purpose of formulating General Standards, the system of sustainable disclosure standards, and the relationship between sustainable disclosure and other information disclosures.
- Disclosure objectives and principles: Stipulate sustainable information disclosure objectives and explain the materiality principles adopted for sustainable disclosure.
- Information quality requirements: Stipulate several quality requirements that enterprises need to meet for sustainable information disclosure, namely reliability, relevance, comparability, verifiability, comprehensibility, and timeliness.
- Disclosure elements: Stipulate several elements that a company’s sustainable information disclosure should include: governance, strategy, risk and opportunity management, metrics and targets. These elements come from the General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability related Financial Information (IFRS S1) published by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). For each element, the Ministry of Finance provided specific explanations.
- Other disclosure requirements: Stipulate the reporting period, comparable information, compliance statement, error correction, disclosure method for the sustainable information disclosure of enterprises. These information are usually applied by companies when publishing sustainability reports after the completion of sustainable disclosures.
- Appendix: Stipulate that the Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards shall be interpreted by the Ministry of Finance and other relevant departments. The sustainable disclosure standards will be expanded to include non-listed companies, small and medium-sized enterprises in the future.
Reference:
Pilot Version of China Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standards General Standards
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