The GCC Exchanges Committee today released a unified set of ESG disclosure metrics that includes 29 standards aligned with the World Federation of Exchanges and the Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative.
These standards include greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, water use, gender pay, employee turnover, gender diversity, data privacy, ethics and more.
It should be noted that these metrics are voluntary, and do not replace existing ESG disclosure guidelines for GCC stock exchanges.
Hamid Ali, CEO of DFM and Nasdaq Dubai, said: “Being a part of this great initiative, in line with the exchange’s strategy to become the region’s leading sustainable financial market by 2025, strengthens our leadership in the ESG space. This signifies DFM’s commitment. We look forward to working with other GCC exchanges to seamlessly adopt these metrics as part of international best practices. This development also complements these various efforts. What we are doing to encourage issuers to incorporate ESG considerations into their approach and operations.
DFM was one of the first exchanges in the GCC to launch the UAE ESG Index in 2020 to track ESG best practices among listed companies.
“We also actively promote sustainable finance, leveraging Dubai’s world-class ecosystem. This has accelerated the emirate’s position as a global hub for sustainable finance, on Nasdaq Dubai by the end of 2022. The total value of listed sustainable and ESG-linked bonds and sukuk has reached USD 16.8 billion,” added Hamid Ali.
The GCC Exchange Committee consists of Dubai Financial Market, Bahrain Bourse, Bursa Kuwait, Qatar Stock Exchange, Muscat Stock Exchange, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, and Saudi Exchange, which chairs the committee. The objective of the committee is to support the development of regional capital markets, build an advanced capital market ecosystem in the GCC region, and raise its position globally.