Under the overall coordination and guidance of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the Shenzhen Stock Exchange (SZSE) has revised the “Self-Regulatory Guidance No. 3 for Companies Listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange—Preparation of Sustainability Report” and the “Self-Regulatory Guidance No. 3 for Companies Listed on the ChiNext Market of Shenzhen Stock Exchange—Preparation of Sustainability Report” (collectively, Guidance). These revised documents are now made public to seek market opinions. 

The revision of the Guidance came as part of the effort to implement the directives of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Central Financial Work Meeting, and the new “National Nine Guidelines”. With this version of Guidance, the SZSE aims to guide listed companies to actively practice sustainable development concepts and further standardize their disclosure of sustainability information, ensuring better implementation of the “Self-Regulatory Guidelines No. 17 for Companies Listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange—Sustainability Report (For Trial Implementation)” (hereinafter referred to as the Guidelines).

Previously, under the unified deployment of the CSRC, the SZSE, factored in market realities and practical needs and followed a stepwise approach to formulate the Guidance. Such two parts as general requirements and disclosure framework, and climate response are focused first, further specifying work processes and providing reference for key disclosure items.

To refine the sustainability reporting framework, and to enhance listed companies’ capabilities in environmental protection and resource utilization, the SZSE, following the overall drafting strategy, adds three new chapters to the Guidance, namely “Pollutant Discharge”, “Energy Utilization”, and “Water Resources Utilization”, in the revised version. These chapters provide:

First, detailed explanations of common risks and opportunities pertinent to the topics, including risks like production capacity restriction incurred by pollutant discharge controls, and increased difficulty in fossil fuel extraction, as well as opportunities like innovation and application of pollution treatment technology, and reduced discharge cost due to the adoption of water recycling system.

Second, general procedures and methods for calculating disclosed data, including information on common types of pollutants and examples of their disclosures, methods for calculating energy consumption, and formulas for calculating energy consumption, and water withdrawals and consumption.

Third, refinement of the requirements in the Guidance, specifying information to disclose, including pollutant discharge, reduction, total energy consumption, and total water consumption.

The SZSE has been advancing towards a leading sustainable exchange, and advocating for relevant practices by cultivating a large number of listed companies which comply with the requirements of sustainable development. In 2025, 1,164 SZSE-listed companies, or over 40% of the SZSE market total, voluntarily published their annual sustainability reports. As of August 2025, 340 SZSE-listed companies  have received an ESG rating of A or above from the CSI, and 861 companies from the CNI. On the international ratings front, 25 SZSE-listed companies received an MSCI rating of A or higher, and 18 companies achieved an S&P score of 50 or above.

The SZSE welcomes valuable opinions from all sectors of society, and will release and implement the revised Guidance after careful study of all feedback. Going forward, the SZSE will keep enriching and refining the Guidance by including practices under other key sustainability topics, further improving its sustainability disclosure framework. By so doing, the SZSE aims to empower listed companies in their sustainable development, and build a stable and enabling market ecosystem characterized by low-carbon and sustainable development.

Attached:

Chapter 3 Pollutant Discharge

Chapter 4 Energy Utilization

Chapter 5 Water Resources Utilization

Comments could be emailed to gsbzjyj@szse.cn.

Note：The formal Chinese announcement clicks here.