APAC Climate Action Progress Report

Disclosure of corporate value-chain emissions and climate targets is on the rise in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, showing progress in climate transparency and accountability. Progress is not, however, uniform, with small- and mid-cap firms lagging their larger counterparts. Going forward, these smaller companies may see growing demand for emissions disclosures as they face investor pressures and regulatory mandates.

Our report also finds that APAC utilities have grown both renewable and coal-fired electricity generation capacity in recent years. However, besides expanding clean-electricity capacity, early retirement of coal-powered plants is increasingly seen as a key step for the region’s utilities to align with net-zero pathways.

Additionally, APAC corporations have emerged as key players in clean-tech innovation. We found examples of industry-leading companies using their supply chain to scale clean-tech deployment and accelerate the speed of research and development of state-of-the-art technology.

Corporate disclosure of Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in APAC markets (2021)

Corporate emissions disclosures in 2021 were the latest and most consistently available data at the time of this research. We considered any disclosure of Scope 3 emissions, without necessarily covering each Scope 3 category. We followed the MSCI methodology for market-cap indexes to define large, mid and small caps. Data sourced from constituents of the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Investable Market Index (IMI) as of Feb. 1, 2024. Source: MSCI ESG Research.