Key findings
Taiwan regains the title of Asia Pacific Sustainability Ranking, Singapore falls to fifth place due to poor performance
Analysis of "Carbon Disclosure" in the Asia-Pacific Region: Taiwan is not making progress but regressing, and its "carbon neutrality" actions are at the bottom
More than just climate slogans! Asia-Pacific companies refuse to just talk, 65% have publicly disclosed net zero targets
According to the United Nations World Population Prospects report, the global population will officially exceed 8 billion in November 2022, and is expected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030. This is an "important milestone" in the history of human development, but it is also prompting governments of many countries to accelerate discussions on crises such as "climate disaster losses", "insufficient food reserves", and "energy supply and demand imbalance".
CSRone, a leading sustainability think tank in Taiwan, and Xinyi College of National Chengchi University have published a white paper-level sustainability analysis report, "Taiwan and Asia-Pacific Sustainability Report Status and Trends," in March every year for 10 consecutive years. This year, the research team conducted an in-depth analysis and comparison of the sustainability practices of Asia-Pacific companies covering 10 countries. The results showed that Taiwan's sustainability performance has ranked in the top 3 for three consecutive years, and this year it has regained the top spot in the Asia-Pacific region.
Unveil the winner of the competition.
This corporate sustainability evaluation covers the public website sustainability information of the top 10 companies in 10 countries, including Taiwan, Japan, China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea, and Australia. This report has been listed as the most important ESG reference data by many domestic and foreign sustainability organizations, and was officially released on March 24 this year at the [2023 9th Taiwan Sustainability Report Analysis Conference] .
Since 2018, the research team has referred to the Forbes 2022 Global 2,000 Survey and domestic databases to screen the sustainability reports of the corporate list, and referred to the experience of sustainability professional organizations and Asian companies in sustainability practices to establish three aspects of environment, society, and corporate governance (ESG), with a total of 10 major sustainability issues (corporate governance, energy conservation and carbon reduction, waste management, education and training, employee care, social investment, human rights, SDGs, water resources, and biodiversity) as analysis indicators. The "Sustainability Temperature Index" standard is used to evaluate the level of sustainability commitment of enterprises, with "mentioned" at 1 degree, "action" at 2 degrees, "performance" at 3 degrees, "target" at 4 degrees, and "improvement" at 5 degrees. The higher the index, the more complete the management actions for the issue.
[Key Finding 1] Taiwan regains the title of Asia Pacific Sustainability Ranking, Singapore performs poorly and falls to fifth place
In the results of this research and analysis, the top five countries in the 2022 Sustainability Temperature Index ranking of the 10 Asia-Pacific countries are: Taiwan (3.55), Malaysia (3.49), Thailand (3.43), South Korea (3.39), and Singapore (3.38). Among them, Malaysia ranked first in "corporate governance", "social investment" and "SDGs", while the evaluation results of many countries declined slightly. Compared with previous years, it has grown by 0.19, and its ranking in the Sustainability Temperature Index has also jumped significantly to the second place. What is striking is that Singapore, which topped the Sustainability Temperature Index last year, dropped to fifth place this year due to poor performance in "waste", "human rights" and "SDGs"; and Australia's performance has been declining year by year since 2020.
It is particularly noteworthy that the research team included the two topics of "water resources" and "biodiversity" in the analysis process for the first time this year. Although Taiwan, an island country with rich biological resources, has regained the top spot in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of sustainability information disclosure, it was found that Taiwanese companies ranked last in the "biodiversity" information disclosure (2.00), indicating that Taiwanese companies still need to improve their management and attention to biodiversity.
CSRone, a sustainable think tank, pointed out that as the attention paid to sustainable issues continues to rise, the issues of biodiversity and energy transition have also officially surfaced. It is recommended that companies make early arrangements to respond to the "Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD)" framework that has been hotly discussed and prepared for promulgation in the international community in recent years.
[Key Finding 2] Analysis of "Carbon Disclosure" in the Asia-Pacific Region: Taiwan is not making progress but regressing, and its "Carbon Neutrality" actions are at the bottom
In January 2023, the Taiwan Legislative Yuan passed the Climate Change Response Act, which officially enshrined the 2050 net-zero emissions target and announced the launch of a carbon fee collection mechanism. In order to further understand the response of companies in the Asia-Pacific region to net-zero emissions, the research team specifically targeted four carbon disclosure indicators: "internal carbon pricing information", "carbon trading information", "carbon neutrality information" and "carbon rights information" to identify the information response and disclosure of Asia-Pacific companies on carbon issues.
The analysis and research pointed out that the top ten companies in the Asia-Pacific countries have paid more and more attention to "internal carbon pricing information", "carbon neutrality information" and "carbon rights information" year by year, with the growth rate exceeding 10%. If we focus on the top ten companies in Taiwan in terms of the disclosure of the four carbon information, we will find that while corporate organizations in various countries are actively communicating carbon management actions, Taiwan's ranking in the disclosure of "internal carbon pricing information (60%)" and "carbon trading information (10%)" has declined compared to the previous year.
CSRone, a sustainable think tank, said that "carbon management" has become the most pressing issue and challenge facing Taiwanese corporate organizations in recent years. In addition to truly implementing carbon strategy actions, it is recommended that companies need to create an important cornerstone for promoting the "climate wave" through open and transparent information disclosure, and demonstrate their determination to transform to the market and stakeholders.
[Key Finding 3] More than just climate slogans! Asia-Pacific companies refuse to just talk, 65% have publicly disclosed net zero targets
For the first time this year, the research team conducted an in-depth analysis of the current status of companies in the 10 Asia-Pacific countries in disclosing net zero targets in their reports and found that during the data review period, a total of 66 companies (65.6%) had disclosed net zero targets in their sustainability reports. It is worth mentioning that 100% of Malaysian companies disclosed net zero targets, followed by Singapore in second place (90%), Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Australia tied for third place (80%), while the disclosure ratios of Hong Kong, India, and China were less than 50%, and only 2 companies in China disclosed.
CSRone believes that as the United Nations and various governments are targeting the development trend of "greenwashing" and formulating review clauses, the "climate commitments" announced by corporate organizations will be magnified and examined one by one. It is recommended that companies stick to the organizational vision (purpose), accurately define goals, implementation scope and direction, and regularly review the achievement of the overview and publicly disclose the substantive content of the actions, so as to meet the needs of increasingly diverse stakeholders.
[Appendix: List of the top 10 companies in 10 Asian countries]
Note 1: Due to the failure of the website of India Oil & Natural Gas, its report could not be obtained, so 9 companies were analyzed in India in 2022.
Note 2: In 2022, only 7 Malaysian companies were included in the Forbes 2000 list.
【2023 9th Taiwan Sustainability Report Analysis Conference: Marching Forward】
Forum time: March 24, 2023 (Friday) 9:00 – 17:00
Forum information: https://csrone.com/events/896
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