News Compilation (17/10-21/10)

Latest Policies

China establishes renewable energy standard system mainly for photovoltaic and wind power

Report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: Actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutralization, and further promote the energy revolution

Deutsche Börse expands ESG data for China market

Swiss Federal Council Announces First Green Bonds to be Issued in Fall 2022

The World's first bilateral green economy agreement was launched

World Bank: China needs to invest 17 trillion dollars to achieve the net zero goal and transition to a low-carbon economy

Enterprises

Gartner releases top 10 strategic technology trends for 2023

Kraft Heinz Releases 2022 ESG Report

Honda Announces $4 Billion Battery Plant in U.S. with LG Energy

Amazon Will Cooperate with Volvo to Enable Electric Trucks for Low-carbon Transportation

BMW Group Announces $1.7 Billion Investment in Electric Vehicles

Walmart, Ørsted and Schneider Electric Announce First Cohort for Renewable Energy Supply Chain Program

PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the global ESG fund size will reach 34 trillion US dollars by 2026, accounting for 21.5% of the global asset size

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China establishes renewable energy standard system mainly for photovoltaic and wind power

Recently, China's National Energy Administration issued a notice on the issuance of the "Action Plan for the Standardization and Enhancement of Energy Carbon Compliance and Carbon Neutrality". The plan proposes that by 2025, a more complete energy standards system will be established to support and lead the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, energy standards will change from a quantitative model to a quality and efficiency model, energy standards will interact well with technological innovation and industrial development, effectively promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of energy, energy conservation and carbon reduction, technological innovation and carbon emission reduction in the industrial chain. Establish and improve the renewable energy standards system mainly for photovoltaic and wind power, and strongly support the development and construction of large wind power and photovoltaic bases, distributed energy sources, etc., grid-connected operation and consumption and utilization. And clearly promote the standardization of non-fossil energy and other six key tasks.

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Report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: Actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutralization, and further promote the energy revolution

On October 16, Xi Jinping made a report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on behalf of the 19th Central Committee, which mentioned that actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, based on China's energy resource endowment, adhere to the first establishment and then break down, implement carbon peaking actions step by step in a planned way, further promote the energy revolution, strengthen the clean and efficient use of coal clean energy, accelerate the planning and construction of a new clean energy system, and actively participate in global governance to address climate change.

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Deutsche Börse expands ESG data for China market

Deutsche Börse has recently announced that the historical ESG data of the Chinese market provided by the Green Finance International Institute of the Central University of Finance and Economics has been officially incorporated into Deutsche Börse's database, further expanding Deutsche Börse's ESG data of the Chinese market. The ESG database of the International Institute of Green Finance of the Central University of Finance and Economics (IIGF), which is now live on Deutsche Börse, covers the ESG data of over 10,000 companies listed in China, including listed companies and unlisted bond issuers, and has achieved full coverage of credit bond issuers. Deutsche Börse's expansion of the Chinese market builds a bridge for global investors to gain a deeper understanding of China, and is also conducive to the continuous opening up of the Chinese market to the outside world, providing more investment opportunities for global investors.

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Swiss Federal Council Announces First Green Bonds to be Issued in Fall 2022

On August 17, the Swiss Federal Council approved a framework document on the issuance of green federal bonds, which encourages the private sector to issue relevant green debt instruments, a move that Switzerland hopes will strengthen its leading position in the green financial services sector. At the same time, an assessment of the socio-environmental situation in Switzerland over the past year has identified some CHF 4.5 billion in green spending, mainly in the areas of public transport, biodiversity, international cooperation and research.

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The World's first bilateral green economy agreement was launched

On October 18, Singapore and Australia announced the signing of the Singapore Australia Green Economy Agreement (GAE). This agreement combines trade, economic and environmental objectives, and is the first such agreement between countries, guided by the transition of the two countries to a zero carbon economy. The agreement proposes seven cooperation areas: trade and investment, consistency of standards, green and excessive financing, carbon market, clean energy, decarbonizing technology and business partnership. The two countries have developed 17 joint initiatives in these seven areas.

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World Bank: China needs to invest 17 trillion dollars to achieve the net zero goal and transition to a low-carbon economy

According to the recent report of the World Bank, China needs to invest 17 trillion dollars to achieve the net zero goal and transition to a low-carbon economy. The report suggests that China should increase investment in renewable energy and accelerate the transformation of the power sector through market reform; Achieve decarburization in the industrial and transportation sectors; Strengthen the low carbon development level in rural areas; Use the market to drive cost-effective emissions reduction and innovation.

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Garrtner releases top 10 strategic technology trends for 2023

Gartner, a leading global consultancy, released on 19 October the top 10 strategic technology trends that enterprise organisations will need to explore in 2023. David Groombridge, Gartner's distinguished vice president of research, said that in 2023, simply delivering technology will not be enough. With environmental, social and governance (ESG) influences, the use of sustainable technology becomes a shared responsibility. Strategic technology trends revolve around the themes of 'optimisation', 'expansion' and 'pioneering': under the theme of 'optimisation' Gartner included Digital Immunity, Application Observability and AI Trust, Risk and Security Management among the strategic technology trends, focusing on digital management to combat risk and make accurate decisions; in the theme of Scaling, Industry Cloud Platforms, Platform Engineering and Infinite Value Realisation were included; and in the theme of Pioneering, Industry Cloud Platforms, Platform Engineering and Infinite Value Realisation were included. The "Pioneering" theme includes metaverse, super applications, and adaptive AI.

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Kraft Heinz Releases 2022 ESG Report

Kraft Heinz recently released its 2022 ESG Report, which covers the progress of the company's ESG priorities for 2021, under the title “Together at the Table". The Kraft Heinz ESG strategy is designed to prioritize the issues that matter most to the company's business and stakeholders. The report highlights progress on three key pillars - healthy living and community support, environmental stewardship and responsible sourcing - that help the company create value among its broad range of stakeholders by incorporating responsible business practices at every stage of its value chain.

Change Report Reality Kraft Heinz has made progress in the past on diversity, inclusion and belonging, net zero commitments and food security goals, and in the future expects to achieve 50 percent of its emissions reduction goals by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050.

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Honda Announces $4 Billion Battery Plant in U.S. with LG Energy

Honda Group recently announced that it will partner with LG to establish a joint venture in the U.S. to produce lithium-ion batteries that will be used in Honda and Acura electric vehicle models. The site for the battery plant has not yet been determined, but construction is expected to begin in 2023, with mass production to begin by the end of 2025, with a target annual output of about 40 GWh.

Promoting electric vehicles is an effective solution to reduce gasoline pollution and carbon emissions, and Honda, one of the leading automakers, expects to produce 750,000 to 800,000 electric vehicles in North America by 2030, with roughly the same amount in China and another 400,000 to 500,000 electric vehicles in Japan and other markets.

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Amazon Will Cooperate with Volvo to Enable Electric Trucks for Low-carbon Transportation

Recently Volvo and Amazon reached a deal to provide 20 electric trucks to Amazon by the end of the year. The initiative will reduce carbon emissions generated when transporting goods, while further helping Amazon to complete its full chain decarbonization goal - achieving net zero emissions in its operational chain by 2040.

The Volvo FH Electric all-electric heavy-duty truck delivered has a battery capacity of 540 kWh, a maximum output of 490 kW and a range of up to 300 km. Mass production of the series began in September this year, and Volvo aims to have 50 percent of its vehicles powered by batteries or fuel cells by 2030.

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BMW Group Announces $1.7 Billion Investment in Electric Vehicles

As BMW Group continues to advance its electric vehicle program, Oliver Zipse, Chairman of the BMW Group Management Board, announced that the Group will invest $1.7 billion in its U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing operations, including $1 billion for the production of electric vehicles at the company's existing U.S. manufacturing facility in South Carolina and $700 million for the construction of a new high-voltage battery assembly plant near Woodruff, S.C. high voltage battery assembly plant near Woodruff, South Carolina.

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Walmart, Ørsted and Schneider Electric Announce First Cohort for Renewable Energy Supply Chain Program

Five suppliers, Amy’s Kitchen, Great Lakes Cheese, Levi Strauss & Co., The J.M. Smucker Co. and Valvoline Inc, have collaborated to execute an aggregated purchase of renewable energy from Ørsted’s Sunflower Wind Farm located in Marion County, Kansas. Over the 12-year term of the agreement, the purchase is expected to generate approximately 250,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) annually of new renewable power, or the equivalent of avoiding the carbon emissions from more than 458,000 gasoline-powered passenger cars driven for one year, according to the EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.The cohort’s success will directly support Walmart’s Project Gigaton goal, which aims to reduce or avoid one gigaton (or 1 billion metric tons) of greenhouse gas emissions from the global value chain by 2030. 

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PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the global ESG fund size will reach 34 trillion US dollars by 2026, accounting for 21.5% of the global asset size

PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that the scale of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) related assets under management of global asset management companies will increase from US $18.4 trillion in 2021 to US $33.9 trillion in 2026. CAGR is 12.9%. From a subregional perspective, the scale of ESG asset management in Europe will grow by 53% to 19.6 trillion yuan, and the scale of ESG asset management in the Asia Pacific region will grow at the fastest rate, which is expected to reach 3.3 trillion dollars by 2026, more than triple the growth. The market share of ESG products in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America is increasing, accounting for $25 billion in asset management.