Q: What are the key steps for companies in implementing ISSB Standards and identifying material metrics?
A: Companies should prioritize disclosure metrics that are closely linked to financial performance that providing investors and the market with comparable and decision-useful information. The ISSB Standards have provided a unified global benchmark to reduce
compliance burdens and enhance transparency. For technology-intensive sectors like solar, the standards also have offered industry-relevant guidance.
Beyond financial metrics, JA Solar also places greater emphasis in practice on cross-cutting topics that are of concern to stakeholders such as customers, including responsible supply chains, climate, and nature. By focusing on these areas through more targeted actions, the company steadily strengthens its resilience and builds investor confidence.
As a member of the ISSB Standards P4EAST (Priority Four Early Adopter Support and Training) initiative, JA Solar was among the first to follow up on the ISSB S1 and S2 standards shortly after their release, and has actively promoted their integration into the company’s governance framework. In 2024, JA Solar published its first climate report the JA Solar Technology Co., Ltd. 2023 Climate-Related Disclosure Report and TCFD Report, which provided financial quantification of climate-related information. While supporting its customers in achieving their emission reduction targets, JA Solar has also been rigorously advancing its own carbon management efforts and has incorporated its supply chain into decarbonization plans, empowering and supporting upstream small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve low-carbon transformation together.
Q: How effective is ESG reporting in attracting investors, and how can it be strengthened through regulation or communication?
A: A transparent and quantifiable ESG framework is essential for cross-comparison and gaining investors’ trust. ESG acts as common language for global companies to align on sustainability goals and practices. Consequently, ESG has become an operational necessity and Chinese enterprises are thriving from vision to action, ambition to action, conception to action.
Q: How does ESG enhance global competitiveness?
A: ESG and sustainability must be embedded into the core operations of photovoltaic companies. PV growth has always aligned with global climate actions—from COP28’s 11 TW renewable energy goal to “Energy for All” vision implemented widely in Africa.
Global attention to climate and sustainable development has consistently served as a powerful engine driving the photovoltaic industry's growth. JA Solar particularly welcomes the increasing focus from both investors and governments on long-term risk management. As highlighted in the Davos Forum risk assessment, “Climate change remains one of the most critical risks within a ten-year horizon.”
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In closing remarks, ISSB Vice Chair Hua Jingdong affirmed that the summit has yielded valuable insights for advancing global collaboration on sustainability disclosures. The proceedings crystallized a fundamental consensus across sectors: Uniform and comparable sustainability reporting forms the cornerstone for the long-term, stable development of global capital markets
