Top 100 firms spend KRW5.44tr on ESG efforts in 2021

• The 100 firms’ combined investment of KRW5.44tn marked a 87.6% increase from KRW2.9tn in 2020.
• With Korea raising the level of its greenhouse gas reduction goal for 2030 from 26.3% to 40%, companies are also focusing on achieving carbon neutrality.
• Some firms are also incorporating ESG principles in risk management. Posco E&C, a construction arm under Posco, uses its P-Taxonomy categorization, based on Korea and EU’s taxonomy, to evaluate the environmental and social outcomes of each project.
• Despite such ESG-incorporated efforts, the FKI’s analysis showed Korean firms’ greenhouse gas emissions increased by 4.7% in 2021 from 2020 before. The hike contrasts from how greenhouse gas emission decreased by 3.2% in 2020 compared to 2019.
• However, greenhouse gas emissions compared to the total amount of sales have been on a continuous decline in the past years, showing that production efficiency has improved with companies’ heightened interest in ESG, it added.

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