Chat with the ESG expert who loves posting on Moments the most: In 2024, is ESG moving forward or backward?

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Welcome to the first podcast of "Randomly Stewed Coconut Chicken (All about ESG)". This podcast is jointly produced by "Slow Growth and Slow Production" and 36Carbon.

Teacher Shi Yichen is one of the most active scholars on the domestic ESG stage at present. He is currently the vice president of the International Institute of Green Finance at Central University of Finance and Economics and the chief economist of Zhongcai Green Index.

Standing at the end of 2024, we choose to review this whole year with Teacher Shi and raise a question that strikes the heart: In 2024, is the ESG field advancing or regressing? In 2025, will the ESG industry be better or worse?

Chatting with Teacher Shi is pleasant.

We often associate "experts" with a serious and old-fashioned image, but after getting to know Teacher Shi Yichen, this label fails.

Strictly speaking, from the moment you add Teacher Shi on WeChat, you can probably know that this is an elder brother who loves life - the tea he loves to drink, the wine he has tasted, and the scenery he passes by during business trips are all recorded one by one.

Even the schedule of recording this podcast has fortunately become the material for Teacher Shi's Moments, along with a KTV song released, a cover of Eason Chan's "Long Time No See":

Picture from Teacher Shi's Moments screenshot

This is also the reason why we invited Teacher Shi to be the guest of the first episode - the positioning of "Randomly Stewed Coconut Chicken" is an interesting and informative ESG business story. We hope to slowly dismantle and carefully discuss everything related to the ESG industry in words that everyone can understand.

Teacher Shi is still engaged in teaching in the fields of finance and finance at Taipei University, and at the same time, he is still tirelessly doing market popularization work for the landing of the ESG concept in the domestic business and financial system.

Teacher Shi in front of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange

Although the main picture of this episode seems a bit "grand", but because of Teacher Shi's simple and clear explanation, please feel free to enjoy this episode of random stew.

We list the key points of this episode here, and you are also welcome to share your views in the comments or scan the QR code to join our discussion group and talk together:

02:10: One sentence to summarize the just-ended COP: The United States' participation is in vain, and the global carbon market has only initiated discussions. Don't be too optimistic.

05:48: Trump is not really against ESG, but against the "invisible hand".

07:27: "No ESG, No Money", Sentimental investment is not sustainable.

14:42: 2024 is a small year for global ESG, but a big year for ESG in China.

20:20: Will BYD's "rolling" of suppliers affect its ESG rating?

26:43: The bankruptcy of Northvolt, which pursues extreme sustainability, is a pity for the industry.

30:48: Two key reports of the China Securities Regulatory Commission: The "Guidance" is about "what to do", and the "Guide" is about "how to do it".

36:29: Five value points of doing ESG for unlisted new energy enterprises.

41:00: If an enterprise wants to do ESG, it can start with an ESG report.

This is a dividing line...

  Possibly helpful noun explanations: 

COP29: That is, the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (the full name is the 29th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), which was held in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, from November 11 to 23, 2024. It is the most influential climate summit in the world and will affect the energy and financial trends related to climate change worldwide.

MSCI ESG Rating: MSCI, namely Morgan Stanley Capital International, is a well-known investment research and rating agency. In 1990, MSCI released its first ESG index, and since 1999, it has rated companies based on major ESG risks in the industry.

Bloomberg Intelligence, a research institution, estimates that 60% of the sustainable or ESG funds invested by global retail investors are based on MSCI ratings.

"Guidance" and "Guide": On November 6, 2024, under the unified deployment of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing Stock Exchanges drafted and released the "Preparation Guide for Sustainable Development Reports (Draft for Comment)" on the basis of the "Guidance for Sustainable Development Reports (Trial)" released on April 12.

The "Guidance" stipulates who (the disclosure subject), when (the disclosure time), based on what principle (dual importance), in what form ("four-element" disclosure framework), and what content to disclose (specific topic regulations).

The "Guide" provides specific disclosure point prompts and examples under the disclosure regulations of the "Guidance", and at the same time is not limited to the sustainable development information disclosure requirements proposed in the "Guide", and further provides guidance at the practical level of sustainable development.

Northvolt Bankruptcy: On November 21, 2024, Northvolt (Northvolt), the largest battery company in Europe known as the "European CATL", filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States. At the time of the application, Northvolt had only $30 million in cash left on its books, but was burdened with a huge debt of $5.84 billion.

The main reasons for its bankruptcy summarized by the industry are: lack of core competitive technologies and products, high construction and operating costs, and lack of experienced talents, etc.

This is a dividing line...

  Program Introduction  

Coconut Chicken is a homophonic梗 in the ESG industry. First of all, we would like to say sorry to the friends who thought we were a food column!

We must first explain ESG: It refers to the performance of enterprises in three aspects: Environment (Environmental), Society (Social), and Governance (Governance).

ESG is a popular field that has emerged in China in the past two years. You may have heard the anecdote that the monthly salary in the ESG industry is six figures, or you may have seen the dense sustainable report requirements of the China Securities Regulatory Commission for listed companies... In short, ESG is having a huge impact on the business community.

But the scope of ESG is really too large. What exactly is ESG? What is its relationship with us? What opportunities and challenges are there? We want to use understandable words to dismantle the proposition of ESG business into discussions to find this answer together.

  The chef of this Coconut Chicken:

Jonas:  The editor-in-chief of the new media technology & ESG section with the code name of a certain chemical element. He firmly believes that "A journalist who doesn't want to be a writer is not a good anchor", ESTJ, and has a Shiba Inu at home.

  Xiaoyang:   From financial media to new energy companies, a ten-year worker in the sustainable field. Facing the eternal uncertainty, he still believes that sustainability is a common topic and task for humanity.

Editing and production: DU@Yingda Technology

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