Companies from the world’s second-largest economy rank the lowest among Asia’s most developed economies on how they report their environmental impact, research by a United Kingdom-based financial markets data provider has revealed. Drawing on its environmental, social and governance (ESG) database, Refinitiv, a provider of financial markets information, released data that shows how companies in the region are measuring up on their environmental performance metrics. Chinese firms have an average environmental score of 56, below the regional average of 62, among eight of the biggest Asian economies surveyed. Singapore firms registered second lowest in a ranking topped by the city-state’s regional rival, Hong Kong. In the report titled Financing a Sustainable Future in Asia, China’s weak performance was mainly due to a large disparity in resource and waste management, with 83 per cent of firms adopting waste reduction policies, but only 8 per cent having introduced specific waste reduction targets to back up their policies.