On the afternoon of Jun. 12, the signing ceremony of the Agreement of Cooperation on Environmental Information Disclosure by Public Companies was held in Beijing. MEP Vice Minister Huang Runqiu and Vice Chairperson of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) Jiang Yang spoke at the ceremony.

Huang noted that green securities as part of the green financial policies are the important safeguard measures for protecting the environment. The Guidelines on Establishing Green Financing System has pointed out a direction for the green financing reforms. China is the first country to propose incorporating green financing into the G20 agenda. The guidelines specifically note that it is imperative to establish a sound system for the public companies and debt-issuing companies to mandatorily disclose environmental information.

For future cooperation, Huang said first, CSRC and MEP should tap the cooperation potentials, establish a fair and orderly market code based on environmental requirements, and advance the healthy development of environmental protection and the securities market. Second, the two sides should adhere to the reforms and innovation, work on improving what and how to disclose environmental information, and take differential regulatory policy measures. Third, we should promote the legal support, upgrade the policy and regulatory measures to rules and regulations, and work to develop institutions and legislations on green securities.

Jiang noted that at a crucial stage for economic restructuring and change of development patterns, the CPC Central Committee has upgraded “green” as a basic concept for economic and social development. The CSRC will guide the entities of the capital market to raise environmental awareness and support the development of green industries. As the bedrock of the capital market, the public companies are incumbent to protect the environment. The mandatory environmental information disclose system helps better the public companies, secure steady growth of the capital market, and improve the environmental quality.

Jiang said that CSRC will further deepen the cooperation with MEP, practice the green development concepts, improve the environmental information disclosure system, and urge the public companies to disclose such information.