On October 28, 2023, the High-Level Forum on "ESG and CPA Professional Development", co-sponsored by the Guangzhou Institute of Certified Public Accountants, China Journal of Accounting Research, and Guangzhou Institute of Internal Audit, was successfully held in Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, with more than 300 well-known scholars, experts, and entrepreneurs from sustainable development, finance, and other related fields participating in the forum. The forum discussed hot topics such as the formulation of sustainability standards, thinking in the upsurge of the ESG, ESG for corporate sustainable development, and response to climate information disclosure, etc. The forum aimed to share the latest practice in the field of ESG from the perspectives of standard setting, academic research, enterprise development, and information disclosure, etc., and promote the high-quality development in the field of ESG comprehensively.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Professor Jinsong Tan of School of Business, Sun Yat-sen University. Mr. Hanzhong Tang, Member of the Party Group and Deputy Director of Guangzhou Municipal Finance Bureau, Mr. Haifang Chen, President of Guangzhou Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and Professor Junsheng Zhang, Editor-in-Chief of China Journal of Accounting Research, delivered speeches for the forum. Mr. Zhengwei Zhang, Special Advisor to the Chairman of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and Director of the Beijing Office, Professor Honghui Chen from School of Business of Sun Yat-sen University, Mr. Dinglin Li, Director, General Manager and Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China Southern Power Grid Energy Storage Co., Ltd., and Ms. Lijing Chen, Director of ESG Investment and Strategy Consulting of KPMG China, delivered keynote speeches successively.
Four academic papers related to ESG were selected for the academic paper seminar session of the forum. Tong Wu, a doctoral student from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, reported his paper "ESG Performance and Cost of Debt" in collaboration with his supervisors, Professor Hongxian Zhen and Professor Yongdong Shi, and Associate Professor Xudong Tang from South China University of Technology commented on the paper, which triggered a lively discussion among the delegates.
