In September 2015, the United Nations established the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the sustainable development framework and language to be followed by the world from 2016 to 2030. The Paris Agreement entered into force at UNFCCC (COP21) shortly after in December 2015. It was a major step forward for the international society endeavoring to respond with climate change issues. 

In the past few years, the impacts arising from climate change have become increasingly apparent. The business community’s measures in coping with climate change has gradually transitioned from voluntary declarations into a common framework with highly regulated incentives or forces, such as CDP, TCFD, etc. Analysis and governance under the environmental aspect are similar to those of the social aspect. They are both conducted under the overall SDGs framework. Moreover, they are consistent with climate change related scientific reports in recent years in the sense that they both integrate the discourse of climate change with the SDGs framework. For instance, during the Climate Action Summit held in New York last year, the United in Science report released by the World Meteorology Organization (WMO), IPCC, and other organizations. This is the same 

for the results published this year. 

The large companies participating in this year report on the environmental aspects are complete in general. Compared to the previous years, the quality of those reports has improved significantly. Many companies have adopted the TCFD framework into presenting sustainability issues, thus producing structuralized risk assessment and management. The issues on air pollution prevention and control, water resources and water pollution, waste management and various environmental issues are presented according to the GRI along with the companies own creativity that are complementary to highlight the key performance. At the same time, since the SDGs coverage is more obvious, systematized 

presentation of the ESG concept becomes clearer. Companies are now able to combine environmental performance, governance, and the social aspect, rather than only seeing the performance in the environmental aspect. Circular economy is a good example; when companies discuss the circular economy in the environmental field, many companies not only talk about circulation, but also attach importance to how to integrate it into their own business. In the economic aspect, the companies’ competitiveness can also be improved or their markets could be expanded. 

It is worth noting that in this year’s report, environmental education was noted more frequently, but it is rarely mentioned in the environmental field but is classified under the social field. It is worth exploring how environmental education responds to environmental performance through the SDGs framework.