China Consults on Climate Disclosure Guidance and Nine Industry Guides

China has opened a new round of consultation on how its Climate Standard should be applied in practice, with added detail on financial effects, GHG accounting and sector-specific disclosures.

China’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) has published for consultation draft application guidance for Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standard No. 1 — Climate (Trial) (Climate Standard), together with separate guidance for nine industries. The consultation opened on 30 September 2026 and runs until 26 October 2026.

China issued the Climate Standard in December 2025. Until separate provisions establish its scope and implementation requirements, companies may apply it voluntarily.

What the Consultation Package Covers

The consultation package includes three attachments:

• the draft Application Guidance for Corporate Sustainability Disclosure Standard No. 1 — Climate (Trial);
• a consolidated set of nine industry application guides;
• a drafting explanation covering the rationale, structure and development of both the general and sector guidance.

The sector guidance covers nine industries: power, steel, coal, petroleum, fertilisers, aluminium, hydrogen, cement and the automotive industry.

The draft application guidance focuses on how companies can apply the Climate Standard when identifying climate-related impacts, assessing risks and opportunities, analysing financial effects and measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Applying the Climate Standard

The document sets out a more detailed process for analysing climate-related impacts. Companies would identify impacts arising from their own activities and value chains, examine the activities, decisions or other factors behind them, assess their materiality and determine the information to disclose.

The strategy section provides further application detail for physical and transition risks, climate-related opportunities, transition plans and climate resilience. For companies with a transition plan, the Climate Standard already requires disclosure of the main assumptions and basis used in developing it. The draft guidance adds further detail on how those requirements may be applied.

Scenario analysis also receives more detailed treatment. Companies would disclose the scenarios and sources used, the relevant time horizons, the business activities covered and the main assumptions. The assumptions may relate to regulation, technology and macroeconomic conditions.

Scenario analysis may follow the company’s strategic planning cycle. The Climate Standard, however, requires climate resilience to be assessed annually.

Connecting Climate Matters With Financial Effects

A substantial part of the draft addresses the link between climate matters, business effects and financial reporting.

Extreme weather, for example, may damage production facilities or interrupt operations. The resulting financial effects may be reflected in expenditure, asset values, financial performance or cash flows. Changes in demand for lower-carbon products may also affect revenue and cash inflows.

The guidance explains how current financial effects can be connected to relevant financial statement line items. Supporting information may draw on financial records, operational information and external data, with companies expected to use reasonable and supportable information and apply consistent methods.

For anticipated effects, the draft distinguishes forward-looking estimates from current accounting recognition. Companies may use scenario analysis and other methods to assess possible changes in financial position, financial performance and cash flows over different time horizons.

Risk Management and GHG Emissions

Risk management is another area where the draft adds practical detail to the Climate Standard. It addresses the identification, assessment, prioritisation and monitoring of climate-related risks and opportunities, as well as their integration into wider enterprise risk management.

For GHG emissions, the draft develops the accounting process for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3. This includes determining organisational and operational boundaries, collecting and validating data and calculating emissions.

Companies may determine organisational boundaries using an equity share, financial control or operational control approach.

For Scope 3, companies may use primary data, secondary data or a combination of both. Where other conditions are equal, the draft gives priority to primary data obtained from specific value-chain activities.

Sector Guidance Adds Industry Detail

The nine industry documents apply the Climate Standard to different business models, value chains and production processes.

They define the relevant industry scope and provide sector-specific detail on climate-related impacts, risks and opportunities, financial effects, GHG emissions and industry metrics and targets.

The drafting explanation says the MOF developed the sector guidance with particular attention to GHG accounting boundaries and sector-specific metrics. In practice, the industry guides provide companies in the covered sectors with more specific reference points for applying the cross-sector requirements of the Climate Standard.

What Happens Next

The consultation remains open until 26 October 2026, with comments submitted to the MOF’s Accounting Department. After the consultation closes, the next point to watch will be how the MOF revises the draft application guidance and the nine industry guides in response to stakeholder feedback.