從2022/2464號歐盟企業永續報告指令探討台灣企業永續資訊揭露的挑戰與法制發展

The Challenges and Legal Development of Corporate Sustainability Information Disclosure in Taiwan in Light of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (EU) 2022/2464

歐盟於2022年12月14日正式發布「企業永續報告指令」（CSRD），替代既有的「非財務報告指令」，以「財務」和「影響」雙重重大性為原則，擴大適用對象、規範應揭露的必要資訊、訂定單一電子報告格式、並要求確信服務，以改善永續資訊報告的有效性問題。台灣以2050淨零排碳為目標，由金管會承襲《公司治理3.0—永續發展藍圖》架構，發布《綠色金融行動方案3.0》與《上市櫃公司永續發展行動方案》，建構永續金融生態圈。
沿襲公司治理的脈絡，從企業社會責任到企業永續發展，永續資訊揭露的相關規範仍在發展當中，相關的研究尚屬有限。借鏡歐盟企業永續報告指令的發展過程與內容規範，台灣企業永續資訊揭露，面臨諸多挑戰：包括除了金管會之外，需要哪些單位參與？除了淨零排碳之外，還有哪些環境與社會的重大資訊應該被揭露？資訊揭露的內容範圍、報告格式和確信方式如何明確以供遵循？除了上市櫃公司之外，上下游供應鏈對象，是否有納入的時間表？當資訊範圍擴大之後，金管會還是不是最適合的領頭羊？諸多需強化之處，值得投入更多研究，以臻完備。
台灣的企業永續發展面對諸多挑戰，建議可借鏡歐盟規範，承襲企業社會責任的脈絡，對於資訊揭露訂定明確規範，從目前的軟法開始，廣納環境、人權等各方專家學者與相關機構，共同訂定資訊揭露一致的重要性標準、明確的資訊揭露內容範圍與報告格式，走向硬法的框架來提升永續發展計畫、行動、與資訊揭露的強制效果。在建立法制規範框架的過程，可以並參照歐盟方式，檢討合適的主管機關、以及成員角色與分工；在適用對象方面，則由大而小擴大對象範圍到大型非上市櫃企業、以及企業的上下游供應鏈，利用整個價值鏈來發揮企業經濟責任與社會責任的倍數效果。整體規劃若能與歐盟企業永續報告指令接軌，將可同步接軌國際，並降低報告成本、提升報告有效性。

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”) was officially published on 14 December 2022 and entered into force on 5 January 2023. Based on the Double Materiality principle of“Financial”and“Impact”, it modernizes and strengthens the rules concerning the social and environmental information that companies have to report. In this regard, it expands the applicable corporates, provides the disclosure standard and defines the scope of content, develops a single and consistent electronic reporting format, and requests assurance services to improve the effectiveness of sustainable information reporting. Taiwan aims to achieve net-zero carbon emission by 2050. To achieve it, the Financial Supervisory Commission published“Green Finance Action Plan 3.0”and“IPO Counter Company Sustainable Development Action Plan”as guidelines.
Taking the page of EU CSRD evolution, it is obvious that Taiwan’s development on corporate sustainability information disclosure is facing quite a few challenges. The whole program is complex and includes various domain know-how, who else asides from Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) should be involved to form the framework? In the long run, is FSC with sufficient resources or is it the right unit to lead? In addition to net-zero carbon emissions, what other environmental and social information should be disclosed to cover the full range of ESG? To prevent from the effectiveness issues encountered by NFRD, in refer with EU CSRD experience, we may have to consider what the standard of“material”and scope of content for sustainability information to cater both effectiveness to the market and cost efficiency to the corporate? In addition, how to make the information accessible and useful and how to assure its sufficiency and accuracy is also part of the challenges. In that regard, what is the common and consistent report standard and how to build up the assurance mechanism? Since the sustainability information is important, should we stay with the listed companies only or how and what is the timetable to expand the applicable target?
From CSR to ESG, Taiwan is in lining with the global standard. In the journey of sustainability, every norm and detail matters. By leveraging the learnings from EU CSRD, it is recommended Taiwan have to invite experts and institutions in charge of various and respective domain fields, especially but not limited to environmental protection and human rights. It is essential and necessary to have resource and expertise from various entities and inter-operate with each other to define a consistent definition of materiality, following the approach of EU CSRD, taking both financial and impact significance into consideration to cater both economic and social responsibilities as well as defining the scope, framework and format of information disclosure for compliance. Taiwan legislation of CSRD will be a long journey, the regulation on sustainability information disclosure can start with soft law as now on but it may be able to strengthen the mandatory effectiveness and accelerate the process if moving forward to hard law in the long run. In the meanwhile, in addition to clear define and expand the scope of content and report framework covering the full range of ESG disclosure with common and consistent report standard, it is also recommended to expand the scope of applicable companies step by step, from big to small, to the whole value chain to achieve the goal and to create mutual benefits of effectiveness and efficiency.