The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has issued a progress report on the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, announcing that membership in the initiative has reached 58 stock exchanges from countries around the world.
The exchanges represent over 30,000 companies and more than 70% of listed equity markets worldwide, the report notes.
The report also analyzes 82 stock exchanges' contributions towards five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): gender equality (SDG 5), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), responsible production and consumption (SDG 12), climate change (SDG 13), and global partnerships (SDG 17).
7 September 2016: The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has issued a progress report on the Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) Initiative, announcing that membership in the initiative has reached 58 stock exchanges from countries around the world. The exchanges represent over 30,000 companies and more than 70% of listed equity markets worldwide, the report notes. The report also analyzes 82 stock exchanges’ contributions towards five Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): gender equality (SDG 5), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), responsible production and consumption (SDG 12), climate change (SDG 13), and global partnerships (SDG 17).
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the SSE Initiative in 2009. The Initiative is organized by UNCTAD, the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI) and the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), and aims to promote private capital flows towards sustainability objectives.
The SSE 2016 progress report was launched at the SSE 2016 Global Dialogue, held on 6 September 2016, in Singapore. The authors note that of the 82 stock exchanges considered for the report: 12 require companies to provide environmental, social and governance (ESG) information; 15 provide specific guidance in this regard; and 11 offer listings of green bonds, which is an increase from previous years, with a total projected value of US$100 billion in 2016. In addition, 38 exchanges provide ESG indices, and 30 out of the 50 largest countries require companies to disclose information on ESG factors. However, only eight of these have put in place an investor stewardship code. These eight governments are: Japan, UK, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, Hong Kong and Malaysia.
The report concludes that more action will be needed if stock exchanges are to successfully reorient financial markets to support the SDGs, and they present a series of SDG-specific recommendations. The authors: call on investors to create market demand for ESG information to overcome the negative effects of “short-termism;” call on regulators to support harmonized regulatory and policy frameworks for reporting ESG information; and note that a global “minimum standard” needs to be developed that will allow comparability across markets. [Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative 2016 Report on Progress] [SSE Press Release] [SSE Webpage on SDGs] [Global Dialogue 2016]