TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE) launched a new ESG InfoHub (InfoHub) website integrating environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) information of listed companies, according to a July 12 press release. 

This is a positive move in the ongoing adoption of ESG in the Taiwan market. Taiwan has a clear commitment to ESG, especially through its Pathway to Net-Zero Emissions in 2050. The TWSE’s InfoHub provides data on ESG products, domestic and foreign resources, plus greenhouse gas inventories to assist investors, in addition to businesses in easily understanding and using ESG related information.

The TWSE said InfoHub will serve as a reference for ESG investment in addition to consolidating market highlights, ESG databases, products, related resources, and greenhouse gas inventories.

Market highlights will feature the recent ESG development of Taiwan’s capital market and listed companies, including sustainability reports, greenhouse gases, corporate governance, equality and diversity, due diligence governance, and green finance, which are the recent focuses of the market.

The TWSE through InfoHub uses greenhouse gases as an example and notes that 573 listed Taiwanese companies have disclosed their “greenhouse gas emission and reduction information” for 2022, demonstrating the attention of Taiwan listed companies to the climate change issue, and have actively planned greenhouse gas reduction management strategies.

Using greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a good strategic move on the part of the TWSE. GHG emissions cause climate change by trapping heat, and they also contribute to respiratory disease from smog and air pollution. Extreme weather, food supply disruptions, and increased wildfires are other effects of climate change caused by greenhouse gases. Reduction of GHG emissions is a global initiative.

From an ESG governance perspective, the TWSE’s InfoHub statistical data, in terms of equality and diversity, shows that the number of female directors in listed companies has been increasing year by year, and more than 72.3% of listed companies have female directors on their boards. It will be important to understand that these female directors are not just for ESG “window dressing” and that they are active board and governance participants.

The InfoHub also has a “ESG Dashboard for Listed Companies” function, allowing users to easily query and compare ESG information of listed companies, including environmental information such as greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and waste materials.

In ESG’s social aspect, users of the dashboard may query indicators such as the proportion of female supervisors, the number of occupational accidents and employee salaries. All-important indicators that have often been extremely difficult to locate in the past.

In the corporate governance aspect, users can search for details such as the number of independent directors, the attendance rate of board members, and the number of briefings to institutional investors. Users may also quickly make cross-company and cross-industry comparisons of various ESG indicators through the dashboard function and understand the annual changes.

It will be interesting to learn in coming months if the dashboard is utilized and the volume and nature of the utilization. Again, it should not be a “nice to have,” it needs to be utilized and statistics of use need to be easily available.

In order to help investors to understand ESG related products, InfoHub also provides links to ESG related indices, ESG index products and sustainable development bonds to help investors find suitable investment instruments. The TWSE has also said that InfoHub consolidates domestic and international ESG related legal norms, guidelines, and particulars to help Taiwanese enterprises understand international ESG related norms and standards, thereby illustrating the growing support for international uniformity within ESG.

Of particular note is InfoHub’s provision of information on sustainability related courses and seminars organized by the TWSE to promote education and communication on corporate ESG issues. Education is vital in the ongoing success of ESG in Taiwan. It is certainly pleasing to note that InfoHub itself is bilingual. Bilingual education would also certainly be attractive to many foreign participants in Taiwan's market and a positive recognition of the government's 2030 bilingual commitment.

In addition, in order to assist businesses in addressing the challenge of climate change, jointly achieving the goal of Taiwan’s 2050 net zero emission policy, and conducting greenhouse gas inventory and assurance in accordance with the schedule of the “Roadmap for Sustainable Development of Listed Companies” by the Financial Supervisory Commission, a dedicated greenhouse gas inventory page is established for InfoHub to allow enterprises to have a one-stop understanding of information such as disclosure schedule planning, Q&A, inventory guidelines, and inventory courses.

The TWSE said in its press release that the launch of InfoHub is an important milestone in its commitment to promoting the ESG ecosystem, in order to achieve goals such as ESG data sharing and application, promote ESG investment, and guide sustainability capital to invest.

The TWSE promises to advance the ESG ecosystem to make ESG the foundation of Taiwan enterprises in international competition and enhance the overall competitiveness of Taiwan’s capital market.

InfoHub is a great step forward. Let us keep the momentum flowing.