TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — There is no doubt that Taiwan is fully committed to the values of environmental, social and governance (ESG).
Examples include renewable energy initiatives, particularly offshore wind energy. There is also environmental protection with the creation of the new Ministry of the Environment and its predecessor’s regulations to promote cleaner production and reduce pollution from industries.
Taiwan has introduced corporate governance changes to enhance transparency, accountability, and shareholder rights in companies. It has added sustainable finance, where Taiwan’s financial institutions have been urged to consider ESG factors when providing financing and investment services, green technology and innovation by investing in research and development.
There has also been Taiwan’s interest in sustainable finance by encouraging the integration of ESG considerations into investment decisions. Financial institutions have been urged to consider ESG factors when providing financing and investment services.
Sustainability reporting is now mandatory by listed companies, obliging them to list their ESG efforts in their annual reports.
Through international collaboration, Taiwan continues to participate in international discussions and initiatives related to ESG, demonstrating its commitment to global sustainability efforts and its sincere commitment to the 2050 Net Zero Pathway.
Value added arguments
On the other hand, some commentators and even some countries do not seem to share Taiwan’s commitment to ESG. Some argue that ESG, sustainable finance, and sustainability are concepts developed to address the shortcomings of a non-functioning economy and would prefer not to talk about or address these values.
Indeed, once you start talking about values, you are often branded as not “business-minded.” You are considered an idealist, not understanding the tune of capitalism that “puts food on your table."
The people that label ESG adherents as idealists are often of the view that any attempt to make a country or its economic system bear the cost for the damage it has done or is doing, should be covered by someone else other than themselves. Then again, these critics often have deeply entrenched investments in the old economies.
But one thing we and Taiwan cannot be, are silent passengers on a train that leads nowhere.
Opponents of ESG are mobilizing to slow down the path to net zero, as inflation bites and the fossil fuel industry comes under pressure. In the U.S., some state governors have rejected “the politicization of the weather” despite having had to grapple with the effects of its extremes.
Wedge against left
Currently there is lobbying in the U.S. by House Republicans to overturn a tax on methane pollution within the Inflation Reduction Act. In Britain, conservatives have apparently decided to use green policies as a wedge against the liberal left.
One European Union (EU) environment commissioner has made the shocking statement that “we simply are nowhere” in referring to leading economies’ efforts to address climate change.
The EU and the G20 nations (an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union) are responsible for about 80% of global emissions. Other countries argue that the G20 is an economic forum and should not be the venue for climate change policy.
China has pushed back on proposed trade restrictions to deal with climate change, such as tariffs on imported carbon-intensive goods. It has also rejected calls for economy-wide targets to reduce total emissions by almost half by 2030, as well as an agreement for global emissions to peak by 2025.
Such targets are intended to limit global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels; the temperature rise so far is at least 1.1 C, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found.
Pave the way
The G20 meetings are intended to help pave the way for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or UN COP28 climate summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year. So far, they have only highlighted the difficulties in reaching an accord.
Although outright climate denial is now patently delusional, foreign conservative politicians are quick to claim that the West has done enough, or that new technology will save us. These same politicians have often taken chunks of money from oil and gas companies as well as other business sectors that often fall foul of ESG filters.
However, it will be the poor who will suffer if we let ESG be submerged by the attacks.
The U.N. Interngovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that 40% of people in rich countries will be inoculated against impacts happening at 3 C of warming that people in poorer countries will be experiencing after an increase of just 1.5 C. Causes of death would include not just heat itself but exposure to ground-level ozone, malaria, dengue, and West Nile virus.
Dengue has already begun to resurge in Taiwan. While Taiwan is often excluded, for political reasons, it must continue to use the respect in which it is held by many in the international community to champion ESG, sustainable finance, and sustainability. It is simply the right thing to do.