Press Releases

"FSC Underestimates Korean Companies' Climate Disclosure Capabilities"

- Some 700 companies already disclosing through CDP — far more than the FSC's 58 mandatory targets

- Of the 292 companies analyzed in the ‘2025 CDP Korea Report’, 77% (222) calculate and report Scope 3

- CDP Korea Committee: "Disclosure roadmap must be redesigned to reflect real climate disclosure capacity"

- 'CDP Korea Conference 2026,' featuring the CDP awards ceremony and exploring the transition, to be held on the 10th

As the Financial Services Commission (FSC) unveiled a draft "ESG Mandatory Disclosure Roadmap" on the 25th that severely limits the scope of mandatory climate disclosure—citing corporate burden and insufficient response capacity—new figures suggest that Korean companies' actual readiness for climate disclosure far exceeds the government's assessment.

On February 25, the FSC announced a highly conservative draft roadmap that sets Korea's first mandatory ESG (climate) disclosure for "KOSPI-listed companies with assets of KRW 30 trillion or more" beginning in 2028 (FY27), with Scope 3 disclosure deferred a further three years to 2031. In practice, the KOSPI-listed companies with assets of KRW 30 trillion or more number just 58. The plan fully reflects industry arguments that point to the distinctive nature of Korea's manufacturing- and export-driven economy and to insufficient climate response capacity.

The CDP Korea Committee (secretariat: Korea Sustainability Investment Forum, KoSIF), however, revealed in its 2025 CDP Korea Report, published on the 9th, that some 700 Korean companies have voluntarily disclosed climate information even in the absence of any legal obligation. That figure far exceeds the 58 companies designated as the first mandatory targets under the FSC roadmap.

In particular, the number of companies reporting value-chain-wide emissions (Scope 3)—widely regarded as difficult to calculate—surged from 127 in 2023 to 222 in 2025 (76% of those analyzed) in just two years. On average, these companies have already completed calculation and reporting for 8 of the 15 Scope 3 categories—more than half.  Da-yeon Lee, Director of the ESG Management Division at KoSIF, explained: "Contrary to the FSC's judgment, which deferred Scope 3 disclosure to 2031 on the grounds of technical limitations and infrastructure, Korea's major companies are already operating systems capable of identifying and managing more than half of their value-chain emission sources."

As a result, criticism that the FSC's draft roadmap underestimated Korean companies' climate disclosure capabilities is expected to intensify. Calls are also likely to grow louder for the final roadmap—to be confirmed in April—to reflect companies' actual capacity by expanding the scope of initial application and redesigning disclosure standards to meet global requirements.

CDP is a global, finance-led international initiative that requests environmental disclosure from the world's major companies—covering issues such as climate change, water, forests, biodiversity, and plastics—and incorporates that information into financial activity. Notably, the climate disclosure standard (S2) of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)—one of the international sustainability disclosure standards Korea has adopted—was built on CDP's framework, and the information it requires is similarly structured. Disclosure through CDP is therefore regarded as a response to mandatory global climate disclosure.

Ji-in Jang, Chair of the CDP Korea Committee, emphasized: "CDP was introduced in earnest in Korea in 2008, and our companies have steadily built up climate disclosure capabilities in the process of responding to demands from investors and customers. The FSC's ESG Mandatory Disclosure Roadmap must be carefully redesigned to fully account for this reality and to ensure that climate disclosure connects to climate finance."

Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP, said: "Environmental disclosure is now core business data in itself," adding that "the disclosure decisions made today will determine tomorrow's competitive advantage."

According to the report, the third-party verification rate—directly tied to the reliability of greenhouse gas emissions data—reached 91%, far surpassing the global average of 67%. Climate performance, however, was found to need improvement. In the Scope 3 domain in particular—which accounts for 90% of the total emissions of the companies analyzed—only 15% had set reduction targets, and progress toward those targets actually showed emissions increasing: -15% in the short term and -6% in the long term, a state of "reverse gear." This points to the policy challenge of converting accumulated climate disclosure experience into genuine emissions reductions—including the swift mandating of Scope 3 emissions disclosure.

Structural barriers to the energy transition also persisted. Renewable energy accounted for just 3.07% of the analyzed companies' total energy consumption, while self-generated renewable power was a mere 0.20%. Among Korean RE100 members, the domestic implementation rate (9.7%) was lower than that of overseas operations (16.8%), clearly reflecting the constraints of Korea's domestic procurement environment.

Meanwhile, this year's top performers—the 2025 Korea Leaders—were also announced. The Carbon Management Honors Club, comprising companies that earned a Leadership A grade or higher and completed third-party verification, includes KT&G, Hyundai Wia, Hyundai Motor Company, IBK (Industrial Bank of Korea), and LG Uplus. SK hynix, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung C&T, Shinhan Financial Group, and Hyundai E&C have maintained their place in the Climate Change Hall of Fame (Platinum Club) for several consecutive years. Hyundai Motor Company won the grand prize in the water security category.

KoSIF, secretariat of the CDP Korea Committee, will host the CDP Korea Conference 2026 (CKC 2026)—which seeks practical solutions for the transition and includes the CDP awards ceremony—on Tuesday the 10th, beginning at 10 a.m. at the Pullman Ambassador Seoul Hotel. (End)

Inquiries: cdp@kosif.org