On 24 April 2024, with the financial support of the ADB, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China held the interim workshop of "TA6972: Piloting Environmental Information Disclosure to Promote Relevant Green Standards in the Yellow River Basin" (the Project). Dr. Xin Liu, Director of EED, as the team leader and policy system reform specialist, and Ms. Zhifang Hong, the head of the international consulting division of EED, as the project environmental specialist, were invited to attend the meeting and delivered speeches.

At the meeting, Dr. Xin Liu, director of EED, shared the work outputs of this TA project and made arrangements for the coming  work. Dr. Liu stated that during the  executing of the project, green standards might  be developed which in line with international trends and domestic situation, to strongly support for the green development.

The Project focuses on the environmental indicators in ESG, providing guidance for environmental information disclosure to the listed companies and related organizations. By summarizing the experiences and lessons learned from the project, an online information sharing platform is designed to strengthen national-level and multi-departmental cooperation, and to promote coordination and cooperation between the Ministry of Ecology and Environment ,and related organizations. To verificate the applicability and responsiveness of the draft green standards for environmental information disclosure, the listed companies or financial institutions in the Yellow River Basin are selected as the pilots.

The attending experts affirmed the phased achievements of the project, discussed green standards, and provided opinions and suggestions for the follow-up work of the project. Dr. Xin Liu, on behalf of the project team, appreciated the valuable suggestions provided by the experts. The project team will further refine and continuously improve standards through practical application, to promote the implementation of green development.

In addition, Ms. Zhifang Hong, head of EED international consulting business division, interpreted the "environmental information sharing" mentioned in the project. She stated that the focus of environmental information sharing should be on basic enterprise information, enterprise management information, pollution discharge information, and environmental risk information. Disclosure practices should be carried out around environmental management, resource utilization, pollution discharge, ecological safety, and green supply chains. In response to the above key and difficult issues, the working group continued to conduct more detailed research and continuously promote the in-depth development and practice of environmental information sharing.

The primary aspect of environmental information disclosure is to establish short-term ESG strategic goals, starting from building the social impact of the enterprise, and gradually transforming into long-term ESG strategies to create long-term value. EED is a comprehensive organization dedicated to promoting global sustainable development. Since its establishment, EED has focused on research on domestic and international energy and environmental policies. In the future, EED will continue to deepen its industry and provide strong support for improving the environmental information disclosure capacities of Chinese enterprises and institutions.