China Introduces Standards for Corporate Sustainability Disclosure - Basic Standard

On November 20, 2024, nine departments, including the Ministry of Finance, jointly issued the Standards for Corporate Sustainability Disclosure - Basic Standard (for Trial Implementation) (the “Basic Standards”), with effect from November 20, 2024. Enterprises may implement the Basic Standards voluntarily until the scope of implementation and specific requirements are finalized.

The Basic Standard consists of 31 articles in six chapters, including General Provisions, Disclosure Objectives and Principles, Information Quality Requirements, Disclosure Elements, Other Disclosure Requirements, and Supplementary Provisions. Chapter 3 - Information Quality Requirements specifies six criteria for sustainability information disclosed by enterprises: reliability, relevance, comparability, verifiability, understandability and timeliness.

The national unified system of sustainability disclosure standards consists of basic standards, specific standards and application guidelines. The Basic Standard mainly regulates the basic concepts, principles, methods, objectives and general requirements of corporate sustainability disclosure; the specific standards provide specific requirements for disclosure of information on environmental, social and governance sustainability issues; and the application guidelines include two categories: industry application guidelines and standard application guidelines.