At our recent APAC climate conference, which brought investors, companies and financial institutions together, discussion focused on financing decarbonization, the usefulness of looking beyond emissions and the development of biodiversity metrics. 

APAC firms are increasingly disclosing value-chain emissions and climate targets, reflecting progress in climate transparency. Smaller companies, however, lag in this area, and potentially face growing investor and regulatory pressure for disclosures. 

In a sweeping overhaul of its private education sector, China issued new regulations that requires the USD 100 billion industry to register as a non-profit. The move threatened to wipe out billions of dollars of market capital for any publicly listed Chinese education company and ignited a debate around profits, education, and private capital. We discuss what the move means from a local standpoint, a market standpoint, and from an impact investor standpoint. Then we discuss the ongoing sexual harassment controversy at Activision Blizzard that led to thousands of employees walking out of their jobs in protest this week.

Xiaoshu Wang of the ESG Research team in Beijing discusses how the Chinese government is working to stem a second wave while encouraging consumers to spend and the economy to flourish.

Chinese domestic investors and issuers are moving fast to incorporate ESG considerations in their decision making, prodded by regulatory initiatives to promote ESG practices and disclosure. At the same time, there are shortages of skilled talent, rising consumer expectations around product safety, growing climate awareness and increased expectations for shareholder rights.

China’s new 13th Five Year Plan continues to emphasize green economic development, introducing an energy use cap and carbon reduction targets. In parallel, policies focused on renewables, clean tech, green finance, and reform of overcapacity SOEs support these targets, creating opportunities for corporate leaders and laggards to emerge.

As China embarks on the final few months of the 12th Five Year Plan, President Xi Jinping's administration faces some difficult policy choices. The economic slowdown is converging with a multitude of other challenges previously seen as secondary to economic goals. Natural resource scarcity due to overuse and to industrial pollution has become one of the restricting factors on economic development. Environmental pollution has alarmed the public and precipitated protests in some regions. China...