Asia as a key player in global supply chains

Very soon, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive will be raising the bar for how far ESG data should be collected up the stream of a company’s own operation. The US SEC’s proposed climate disclosures will have a similar effect.

As a result, Asian businesses will face an increasing pressure to monitor sustainability issues of their own operations and those of their direct suppliers – and act if they find violations. The CEOs are very well aware of the need to address sustainability issues in their business plans:

• 60–69% of APAC companies in the region have made, or are progressing towards, a net-zero and/or carbon-neutral commitment. That puts them 9–13% ahead of global peers.
• 77% of Asia Pacific CEOs have had their sustainability approach independently assessed and validated. That is 11% more than global average.
• 43% of Asia Pacific CEOs have embedded emissions targets into their strategy. The global number is 6% lower.
• CEOs in China are the most ambitious. 53% include GHG emission targets in their strategy, and 46% into a compensation plan.
• Australia and India show strong interest in gender representation rates[1].
• The average ESG rating of APAC-listed companies recorded the faster growth over the last 3 years: 9 pp for the Hang Seng index, 8 pp for the ASX 200. In contrast, European STOXX 600 average rating, while still comfortably leading, grew by 4pp[2].

[1] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/about/pwc-asia-pacific/ceo-survey-2022.html

[2] https://solutions.refinitiv.com/esg-data?utm_content=Company%20Data-HK-APAC-G-EN-BMM&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=596226_PaidSearchInvestmentSolutionsBAU&elqCampaignId=16987&utm_term=+environmental%20+social%20+governance&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjvaYBhDlARIsAO8PkE3my0gEEWVXzAIxiQ_b9lz4HY5-6i6NL8aNlGnSX5PSiQ_yU_XHPj0aAk-hEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds