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2022 September
Forging A Shared Business Vision to Combat Climate Change

Climate change and associated extreme weather events across the globe are sparking increased public concern. As measures and policies are put in place by all governments to come to grips with the issue, businesses are committing more resources and efforts towards this end as regulatory policies and listing rules require. However, it involves collecting and analyzing huge amounts of data.

 

In response to the Paris Agreement, more and more countries are introducing laws that make climate-related disclosures mandatory. Companies are also required to demonstrate business sustainability to ensure transition to a low-carbon or net-zero economy and adapt to climate change, as well as disclose their climate-related risks.

 

The US Securities and Exchange Commission proposed earlier a new rule for listed companies to require mandatory disclosure of climate-related information, but the specific data and benchmarks may vary across different local or national policy indicators. In any event, this entails collecting large amounts of information and complex processing.

 

Building a climate-resilient business platform for Asia

A non-profit environment protection alliance was formed recently. The Asian Corporate Coalition for Climate Change Resilience (A4CR) aims to drive and support climate action and build a climate-resilient coalition business platform in Asia.

 

A4CR’s aims include forming a strategic coalition of major Asian business organizations to support the integration of climate action into corporate governance, strategies, operations and financing; facilitating climate-related knowledge and experience sharing; generating a comprehensive benchmarking scheme to assess member companies’ progress in climate-related preparation; promoting discussion on setting up standardized roadmaps and reporting metrics for consistent climate actions and disclosure that are readily communicable to prospective stakeholders.

 

William Yu: Help businesses build resilience to climate change

William Yu, A4CR initiator and founder and CEO of World Green Organization, indicates that he has long noted an obvious trend in many countries to make climate change action a key listing requirement. Recognizing the challenges involved in collecting data of related issues, he came up with an idea to form a business coalition. The A4CR project got off the ground after two years of preparation.

 

The coalition has received warm support from the business sector. “In the future, we will continue to recruit corporate members in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and other Asian cities, hoping to make positive and beneficial impacts.”

 

Cyrus Cheung: Climate change data are wide-ranging and numerous

Cyrus Cheung, PwC Primary ESG Reporting Technical Advisor, feels that it is difficult for a company to sort, consolidate and process climate change data on its own. “Our international business background and database capacity enable us to offer comprehensive services to companies. We can help them draw up and implement a master ESG strategy and set carbon reduction targets.” He added that the coalition is a synergy of many strengths which can be applied flexibly to support the right candidates. By providing adequate solutions and data, A4CR can spare business organizations from heavy workloads of data analysis and collection.

 

Bruce Chong: A corporate health check

Bruce Chong, A4CR Primary Climate Technical Advisor and ARUP Director of Climate and Urban Sustainability, pointed out that many businesses have overseas properties and other assets which pose considerable challenge both in management and data collection. It is hard for them to formulate an all-encompassing environmental and climate change solution. “What we do is like giving businesses a health check. We audit all their operations and assets to identify the most appropriate solution.”

 

He stressed that impacts of climate change are extensive. In the long run, companies should interact with other major Asian business organizations and share experience in mitigating climate change adversities. A climate change response plan should also be implemented based on scientific evidence benchmarking.