Bahrain Bourse, CBB showcase sustainability efforts at COP28

TDT | Manama                                                    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Bourse (BHB) yesterday announced its participation alongside other global corporations, policymakers, governments, non-governmental organisations, and industry experts at the 28th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28).

The event, from November 30th to December 12th, 2023, in Dubai, UAE, had the presence of Dr. Mohammed bin Mubarak bin Daina, Minister of Oil and Environment and Special Envoy for Climate Affairs.

At COP28, Bahrain Bourse and the CBB participated in the panel discussion titled “Navigating the ESG Landscape: Insights from Bahrain Bourse and the Central Bank of Bahrain,” which took place on December 4 at Bahrain’s Pavilion.

The panel included the participation of Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Bourse, and Abeer Al Saad, Executive Director of Financial Institutions Supervision at the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), and was moderated by Kalyan Subramanian, Head of Markets at KPMG Bahrain.

Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Bourse, said, “We strongly applaud the steps undertaken by the CBB for the introduction of a standardised regulatory framework for ESG reporting, which will bring greater consistency and comparability to ESG disclosures within the market, particularly on climate change, as this forms a key milestone towards achieving a net-zero economy.

This milestone will facilitate further growth within the wider sustainability ecosystem in capital markets through promoting green finance initiatives and green index products." Abeer Al Saad, Executive Director of Financial Institutions Supervision at the Central Bank of Bahrain, said, “The CBB acknowledges that there may be challenges in implementing ESG reporting, particularly in the initial years.

However, companies are expected to make reasonable efforts to report key performance indicators,  transparently explain any limitations in reporting, and outline the steps being taken to address those limitations.”

Bahrain Bourse issued its ESG voluntary reporting guidelines for listed companies in June 2020, which included 32 ESG reporting metrics. The same year, the CBB issued an ESG Reporting Survey. A year later, in August 2023, a consultation paper was issued by the CBB on ESG requirements.

This was followed up by the issuance of the ESG Module by the CBB on November 5, which is effective immediately and will be applicable to all listed companies as well as targeted CBB licensees for the reporting period ending December 2024.

Earlier this year, in January 2023, the GCC Exchanges Committee and GCC General Secretariat also published a unified set of ESG Disclosure Metrics to align reporting across GCC exchanges and enhance transparency within capital markets, which included 29 ESG reporting metrics.