We are motivated, in part by the global sustainability agenda, to maintain an ongoing conversation with different stakeholders and report our subsequent plans to address the important goals that arise. Our new CSR strategy was written to help us address global sustainability issues at a local level. It represents our desire to better align our CSR goals with the global sustainability agenda, in particular the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) Sustainability Principles, reflecting HKEX’s positioning as the region's global markets leader.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
The UN’s 17 goals stated within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development call for action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. When we formulated our approach towards addressing different CSR focus areas, we endeavoured to embed the relevant SDG oriented targets into the process as far as reasonably practical. For example with regard to, SDG target 12.6 - Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle. This has been incorporated into our initiative to promote ESG management and disclosure. Further information regarding our focus areas and the specific SDGs can be found throughout the Report.
World Federation of Exchanges Sustainability Principles
In 2018, the WFE set out a set of core principles for stock exchanges to take on a leadership role in promoting the sustainable finance agenda -
- Principle 1: Exchanges will work to educate participants in the exchange ecosystem about the importance of sustainability issues
- Principle 2: Exchanges will promote the enhanced availability of investor-relevant, decision-useful ESG information
- Principle 3: Exchanges will actively engage with stakeholders to advance the sustainable finance agenda
- Principle 4: Exchanges will provide markets and products that support the scaling-up of sustainable finance and reorientation of financial flows
- Principle 5: Exchanges will establish effective internal governance and operational processes and policies to support their sustainability efforts
As a WFE member, we sought to adopt these principles as the underlying foundation of our CSR strategy and initiatives. This includes our recent market initiatives to promote and advocate enhanced ESG management and disclosure among our listed issuers, to introduce relevant frameworks for the advancement of sustainable financial products, as well as our ongoing efforts to review and enhance the governance structures and policies that enable the achievement of our sustainability goals.