The China Listed Companies Association and China Securities Index Co., Ltd. jointly release the "China Listed Companies ESG Development Report (2025)."

On November 18, at the 2025 Sustainable Development Conference for listed companies, the China Listed Companies Association and the China Securities Index Co., Ltd. jointly released the "China Listed Companies ESG Development Report (2025)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). This is the fifth consecutive year that the two parties have released this report, providing a window for all parties to understand the ESG development of Chinese listed companies. 2025 is a critical year for the continuation and advancement of China's modernization, as well as the conclusion of the "14th Five-Year Plan" and the important year for planning and layout for the next five years. In the process of practicing sustainable development concepts, Chinese listed companies are committed to promoting technological innovation, accelerating green transformation, and promoting common prosperity. They increasingly recognize that environmental, social, and governance issues are not only a response to external regulatory requirements, but also strategic support points for building long-term resilience and cultivating core competitiveness for companies. The "Report" summarizes and analyzes the new trends in ESG development in 2025. According to the "Report", the Chinese ESG ecosystem is maturing and the regulatory framework continues to improve. Firstly, China's green transformation model demonstrates leadership and responsibility in global sustainable development. While achieving significant progress in the development of non-fossil energy and maintaining a global absolute advantage in renewable energy installed capacity, China has taken the lead in responding to global governance frameworks in the field of biodiversity conservation by initiating major biodiversity conservation projects. Secondly, China's policies in the sustainable development field are increasingly perfecting. The official implementation of the "Energy Law of the People's Republic of China" in January 2025 and the first appearance of the "Ecological Environment Code (draft)" in April have greatly promoted the legalization process of green and low-carbon development in China. Various departments are collaborating to build a comprehensive chain of sustainable development regulation, financial empowerment policy measures are significantly strengthened, and the sustainable information disclosure framework is gradually improving. The "Sustainable Development Report Guidelines" and the accompanying preparation guides provide accurate guidance for companies to implement sustainable information disclosure. As of September 2025, over 2500 A-share listed companies had published sustainable development reports for the year 2024, with a 5% increase in disclosure rate compared to the previous year. Thirdly, sustainable investment is empowering green transformation practices with precision, shifting from "scale-oriented" to "value-oriented". Guided by sustainable development concepts and green financial policies, China's sustainable investment market is moving away from the inertia of "scale competition", fundamentally restricting the financing of "pseudo-green" projects, and shifting towards a phase of precise effort with core value creation at its center. By the end of June 2025, the total scale of domestic ESG public fund products had reached 268.291 billion yuan, the green transformation investment product system had been iteratively upgraded, achieving a breakthrough from "single supply" to "multiple adaptation". The "Report" also analyses that the depth and breadth of Chinese enterprises' ESG practices are steadily increasing, moving from "compliance disclosure" to "active planning". In terms of the environment, companies are resolutely implementing carbon emission controls and transitioning to lower carbon emission actions throughout the entire industry chain. The circular economy model and biodiversity protection measures are being substantially applied in more industries. In 2024, over 70% of companies disclosed measures to reduce carbon emissions, 38% disclosed measures for biodiversity or land resource protection, and the total greenhouse gas emissions and intensity of companies decreased by 11% and 12% respectively. In terms of society, companies are deeply assuming responsibilities at the core of the value chain; optimizing relationships with stakeholders; relying on accumulated advantages to serve national strategies; promoting the coexistence and prosperity of enterprise development and people's livelihoods; and empowering value upgrades through technological innovation. In 2024, over 27% of companies achieved a 100% employee training coverage rate, 75% of companies focused on resilient supply chain management, the average investment amount of listed companies in rural revitalization projects was 36.82 million yuan, and both technology-intensive and traditional industries strengthened data security measures. In terms of governance, listed companies are focusing on restructuring the core of governance, benchmarking the new "Company Law" to promote the construction of modern enterprises with Chinese characteristics. In 2024, over 70% of companies established oversight functions for sustainable development work within their board of directors or specialized committees, over 40% of companies incorporated ESG factors into risk management and internal control systems, the incidence of negative corporate governance events significantly decreased, and employee stock ownership and equity incentive mechanisms were more widely applied. The "Report" proposes six measures to promote ESG practices in listed companies: 1) Strengthen the implementation of sustainable policies to build a solid foundation for corporate practices; 2) Build internal driving mechanisms for sustainable practices to enhance corporate capabilities; 3) Play a guiding role in the sustainable market to activate the potential of sustainable development; 4) Strengthen local ESG rating functions and promote "assessment to construction" in coordination; 5) Accelerate digital integration to enhance the effectiveness of corporate sustainable governance; 6) Promote international ESG integration to empower sustainable development through high-level openness. As a joint venture of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges, China Securities Index Co., Ltd. has been actively supporting the capital market in serving green and low-carbon transformations, aiming to promote ESG ecosystem construction with the goal of "creating Chinese ESG evaluation standards and promoting the best ESG practices in China". Firstly, based on national policies and local realities, the company deeply integrates the sustainable information disclosure requirements of exchanges to create the China Securities ESG evaluation method that suits the characteristics of Chinese enterprises, and launch the core product of China Securities ESG evaluation. Currently, China Securities ESG evaluation covers nearly 5000 A-share listed companies, China Securities climate transformation evaluation covers more than 2500 bond issuers, and China Securities ESG fund data services cover approximately 4300 public fund products. Secondly, the company expands the application of ESG evaluation products and enriches the supply of ESG indexes. On one hand, the results of China Securities ESG evaluation are applied in the compilation of unique broad-based indexes. The China Securities ESG evaluation is used as a screening threshold for sustainable investment dimensions in the compilation of China Securities "A series" indexes, Shanghai Composite 180, Shanghai Composite 380, etc., to enhance sample risk management and promote domestic index investment innovations. On the other hand, the company continues to enrich sustainable development index systems such as China Securities ESG benchmarks, ESG leaders, ESG strategies, and ESG themes, providing a rich variety of targets for sustainable investment. As of the end of October this year, China Securities Index Co., Ltd. has published a total of 164 sustainable development indexes, with 90 tracking products and a combined scale of 96.297 billion yuan; 177 wide-based index products selected based on China Securities ESG evaluation were developed, totaling 2782.68 billion yuan in scale. Additionally, China Securities ESG evaluation products are widely used in the research and investment processes of over a hundred institutions, including pension funds, public funds, and insurance groups. Thirdly, the company is promoting the construction of ESG standards to help ESG steadily "go global". On one hand, it has completed high-quality research on enterprise ESG evaluation standardization topics for the National Financial Standardization Technical Committee and the subcommittee of the National Financial Standardization Technical Committee on securities, promoting the construction of green financial standards. On the other hand, it uses platforms like the "China Listed Companies ESG Development Report" to promote and nurture the ESG concept and share the ESG stories of Chinese companies. In the future, China Securities Index will further enrich new products like the China Securities Green Income Data, expand the application of ESG evaluation and index products, enhance the local influence of ESG ratings, and actively promote "evaluation to construction". The "China Listed Companies ESG Development Report" is an important annual outcome jointly launched by China Securities Index Co., Ltd. and the China Listed Companies Association. Standing at the starting point of the new five years, China Securities Index will continue to cooperate with the China Listed Companies Association and relevant parties to jointly construct the ESG ecosystem in China, promote green and low-carbon transformation, help more companies transition from "observers" to "participants", from "participants" to "leaders", and further enhance the sustainable competitiveness of Chinese listed companies.