2026 has been widely described as a “landmark year” for corporate environmental information disclosure. With the joint issuance of the Enterprise Sustainability Disclosure Standards No.1 – Climate (Trial) by the Ministry of Finance and eight other ministries, alongside new sustainability disclosure requirements released by the three major stock exchanges, value chain greenhouse gas (GHG) disclosure (Scope 3) has formally transitioned from an “encouraged exploration” phase to a stage of standardized regulation. This shift represents not only a test of corporate transparency in environmental information disclosure, but also a profound transformation of corporate digital carbon management capabilities.

The Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) released its Corporate ESG AI Q&A Tool on April 21st, aiming to make environmental big data more understandable and actionable, improve incentive and accountability mechanisms, and support enterprises in enhancing their ESG performance. As part of IPE’s Blue Map AI ecosystem, the newly launched AI tool integrates extensive data collection and dynamic assessments of both Chinese and international brands, listed companies, and tens of millions of enterprises. By combining these datasets with large language models such as DeepSeek, the tool provides intelligent search and analysis services on corporate environmental and climate performance for a wide range of stakeholders.

The Administrative Measures for Listed Company Information Disclosure, for the first time at the departmental regulation level, incorporates sustainability reports (including ESG disclosures) into the mandatory disclosure framework for China's listed companies. This marks the elevation of ESG disclosure from corporate social responsibility initiatives and stock exchange self-regulation to a compulsory regulatory requirement under government rules. The revision of the Listed Company Annual Report Content and Format Guidelines represents a constructive effort to bridge capital market supervision with environmental information disclosure requirement. This move helps direct investors' attention to environmental regulatory requirements, particularly the mandatory environmental disclosures by listed companies and their subsidiaries within the consolidated financial statements.

The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) released the evaluation results of the 2023 Listed Company Climate Action CATI Index. The report indicates that overall China's listed companies have made progress in climate action. IPE believes that this 2023 CATI evaluation is a systematic background investigation before the release of the new rules on listed company ESG information disclosure, and to a certain extent, reflects the "baseline" of climate disclosure of listed companies.

The "Self-Regulatory Guidelines for Listed Companies – Preparation of Sustainability Reports (Draft for Comments)", as a supporting document to the "Self-Regulatory Rules for Listed Companies – Sustainability Reporting (Trial)", aims to guide China's A-share listed companies in enhancing their sustainability disclosure capabilities, improving the standardization of sustainability report preparation, and strengthening the completeness and relevance of sustainability-related information. The Rules and the Guidelines mark a new phase in sustainability information disclosure in China's capital market. However, IPE's comparative analysis reveals that there are still significant differences between these requirements and mainstream international ESG disclosure standards. This discrepancy may lead to duplicate disclosures and impose additional costs.

Since 2021, The Paper and IPE have jointly released dynamic environmental performance rankings for Chinese listed companies, along with sector-specific rankings. These rankings are based on environmental big data, aiming to disclose pollution issues, encourage companies to fulfill their environmental responsibilities, and improve environmental information disclosure. It also seeks to identify green investment opportunities, enhance the ESG responsibility investment system, and use market forces to drive green and low-carbon development.

Since 2021, The Paper and IPE have jointly published dynamic rankings of the environmental performance of Chinese listed companies, along with industry-specific sub-rankings. This issue focuses on agricultural and agro-byproduct food processing industry, covering 62 listed companies and 6,514 affiliated enterprises.