With the development of China's industry and the acceleration of industrialization, the amount of hazardous waste generated has increased year by year, and the number of hazardous waste disposal enterprises has also increased year by year. In order to make hazardous waste disposal enterprises pay more attention to their own environmental responsibilities and strengthen multi-party supervision, national legislation requires hazardous waste disposal enterprises to purchase environmental pollution liability insurance, and requires relevant enterprises to make disclosures. As a leader in the hazardous waste disposal industry and the cornerstone of the capital market, listed companies on hazardous waste disposal should play a leading role in insurance and disclosure of environmental liability insurance.
Recently, the environmental protection organization Green Jiangnan Public Environmental Concern Center (hereinafter referred to as "Green Jiangnan") released the 13th green insurance report "Observation Report on Environmental Liability Insurance Information Disclosure of A-share Listed Hazardous Waste Disposal Enterprises", which focuses on the 2022 annual reports, social responsibility reports, ESG reports, etc. disclosed by 22 domestic A-share listed hazardous waste disposal companies, as well as their affiliated enterprises (with an equity ratio of 50% or more) In the annual environmental information report of enterprises published by the enterprise information disclosure system in various provinces and cities, the current situation of environmental disclosure of listed hazardous waste disposal enterprises is observed and studied, hoping to promote the listed companies of hazardous waste to pay attention to the important role of environmental liability insurance in environmental management, actively insure environmental liability insurance, and disclose it in a timely, effective and comprehensive manner in accordance with national regulations, so as to promote the steady development of environmental liability insurance.
Figure The number of listed companies and affiliated enterprises (including the parent companies of listed companies) involved in the report
The Administrative Measures for the Legal Disclosure of Environmental Information of Enterprises (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrative Measures"), which came into effect on February 8, 2022, require that key pollutant dischargers, enterprises that implement mandatory cleaner production audits, and enterprises that have been fined more than 100,000 yuan in accordance with the law for ecological and environmental violations or are involved in other ecological and environmental violations need to disclose the insurance status of environmental liability insurance. Through the Blue Map database (as well as the 2022 list of key pollutant dischargers and the list of mandatory cleaner production audit enterprises released by various provinces and cities), Green Jiangnan found that only 5 parent companies of listed companies were required to disclose in accordance with the requirements of the Administrative Measures, but 2 parent companies of listed companies did not disclose environmental liability insurance information as required. Among the 58 affiliated enterprises, it is reasonable to disclose the insurance information of environmental liability insurance in accordance with the requirements of the Administrative Measures. According to the observation, Green Jiangnan found that there were 44 affiliated enterprises that disclosed environmental liability insurance information, with a disclosure rate of 76%.
According to the disclosure of enterprises, the environmental protection organization Green Jiangnan sent letters to 15 companies that should be disclosed but did not disclose, and so far only 2 companies have communicated, one of which said that it has made supplementary disclosures in the legal disclosure system of corporate environmental information.
As an important means for enterprises to reduce environmental risks and protect the environment, environmental liability insurance plays an important role in promoting the sustainable development of enterprises. Strengthening the disclosure of environmental liability insurance information will help improve the transparency and credibility of corporate environmental liability insurance information, and will also help promote enterprises to actively fulfill their environmental responsibilities and protect the environment, and promote the realization of the dual carbon goals. Therefore, Green Jiangnan suggests: (1) As an important carrier of China's economy and the core of the capital market, listed companies represent the largest group and the highest level of China's industrial and economic development. In addition, in an attitude of being responsible to shareholders and their society, we should consciously disclose environmental information required by laws and regulations, including environmental liability insurance, and take the initiative to disclose other environmental information. (2) In addition to the parent company, there may be as many as 100 affiliated enterprises of a listed company. Therefore, listed companies should formulate environmental information disclosure policies and establish internal supervision mechanisms. (3) **Supervision should be strengthened, and enterprises should be urged to disclose as much as possible. (4) Strengthen public participation and supervise the environmental disclosure performance of enterprises.