Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - In the face of increasingconcerns about climate change as well as corporate responsibility insustainable development, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) said it wasconsidering deducting points of businesses who does not include information ongreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the annual report period of 2022.

Nguyen Thi Thu Thuy, Deputy Director of the InternationalCooperation Department under the State Securities Commission, said that in Vietnam,standards, regulations and guidelines are helping information disclosure underESG (Environment – Society – Governance) become more popular such as the 2020Law on Environmental Protection, Decree No. 06/2022/ND-CP on mitigation ofgreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and protection of the ozone layer, Decision No.01/2022/QD-TTG promulgating a list of sectors and establishments emitting greenhousegases that must carry out an inventory.

Accompanying Decision 01/2022 is a list of 1,900 enterprisesrequired to declare greenhouse gas emissions, divided into six areas: energy;transportation; construction; industrial processes; agriculture, forestry andland use; and waste.

According to Tran Anh Dao, Deputy General Director of HoSE, in the2021 annual report, few listed companies have reported basic data on greenhousegases as the information is not compulsorily disclosed.

Therefore, HoSE is currently considering a requirement for listedfirms to include GHG reporting in the 2022 annual report, and those businessesthat fail to include this will receive a penalty point from HoSE.

Dao also emphasised the necessity and compulsion of thedeclaration of greenhouse gases so that management agencies and enterprises canhelp build Vietnam's stock market in an environmentally sustainable andsocially responsible way. This shows the determination of the managementagencies to work with the Government on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

In order to support enterprises to develop a GHG Report inaccordance with the requirements of sustainable development informationdisclosure, this month, the State Securities Commission in collaboration withthe International Finance Corporation (IFC) organised a training programme on“Gas Inventory and Reporting” for listed companies in Hanoi and HCM City. Thestudies presented in the seminar were conducted by experts from the UK NationalStandards Institute (BSI) with the active participation of listed companiesoperating in many different fields.

Through the training programme, participants learned about theinternational context of climate change, causes and mechanisms of climatechange and sources of greenhouse gas emissions, ISO 14064, and receivedguidance on contents included in the report, as well as the process of how toorganise a GHG inventory and report, define GHG emission boundaries, quantifyemissions and greenhouse gas removal, in accordance with ISO 14064-1:2018.

With the legal framework related to the GHG emissions reporting,the training programme provided businesses with the most common knowledge basedon relevant regulations for reporting greenhouse gas emissions, as well asindustry-specific determination methods. Through that, listed companies can beready to fulfil their reporting obligations to relevant authorities.

Besides reporting to serve the information disclosure obligationsof enterprises, the implementation of greenhouse gases declaration is also amove for enterprises to review their production and business activities. Therewill be adjustments and cuts to suit the business's operational goals as wellas the prevention and management of operational risks./.