• Ping An has comprehensively upgraded its green finance work and committed to achieving operational carbon neutrality by 2030. By 2025, Ping An strives to achieve green investment and green loans scale of RMB400 billion, and a total of green insurance premiums of RMB250 billion.
   
• In order to achieve these goals, the Group has established a Green Finance Committee to coordinate green finance-related strategies, plans and systems. Under the Green Finance Committee, the Group Green Finance Office and the Group ESG Office work together to promote green finance-related work. Each Group subsidiary has set up a Green Finance Offices, responsible for the specific implementation of green finance work.
• Ping An launched China’s first “carbon neutrality” charity trust plan on December 24, 2021. Ping An’s green investment and financing totalled RMB224,580 million, and green banking business reached RMB89,813 million as of December 31, 2021. In addition, Ping An’s environmentally sustainable insurance premium income amounted to RMB44,569 million in 2021.

For more details, please visit the 2021 Sustainability Report. 

In 2021, Ping An newly revised the Policy Statement on Responsible Investment of Ping An Group, which clarified the scope of application of responsible investment and elaborated on the Group’s responsible investment strategies. At the same time, Ping An issued the Policy Statement on Coal Related Business of Ping An Group, which strictly controls investments in high pollution and high emission industries from a policy level.
The five principles concerning Ping An's responsible investment are ESG incorporation, shareholder activism, thematic investing, prudence and transparency.

• ESG incorporation – Ping An incorporates ESG factors into its investment decision making and has proactively developed its own CN-ESG smart evaluation system, a tool for reviewing criteria and basis of investment for listed companies, bond issuers and conducting ESG due diligence on projects. 
• Shareholder activism – Ping An makes full use of its positive influence as a shareholder by way of ESG communication and guidance and responsible post-investment management. It urges the businesses in which it has invested to improve ESG performance and offers practicable suggestions and recommendations based on their conditions, to guide them to develop in a healthy, more sustainable manner.
• Thematic investing – Ping An is committed to practices to promote and progress the concept of inclusive finance and green finance with a focus on sustainability-themed investment strategies involving environment restoration and clean energy. It also concentrates on investment tactics that may also bring about social benefits, such as poverty alleviation and inclusive finance.
• Principle of prudence – Ping An is committed to not invest in controversial industries and regions. Ping An also adopts conditional exclusion strategies on highly polluting and energy-hungry projects. Also, we choose to invest thermal power and coal industries in a prudent fashion.
• Principle of transparency – Ping An will disclose any qualitative and quantitative information concerning responsible investment in the interim report and annual sustainability report.

Ping An has formulated an internal Group Sustainable Insurance Policy based on the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) issued by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). The four principles of sustainable insurance are：

• Incorporate ESG factors into insurance business decision models 
• Work with clients/business partners to raise awareness of ESG, manage related risks and develop solutions
• Collaborate with governments, regulators and other relevant parties to promote broad-based community action on ESG issues
• Regularly disclose Ping An's progress in implementing the Principles for Sustainable Insurance to demonstrate corporate responsibility and transparency.

For more details, please visit Policy Statement on Sustainable Insurance of Ping An Group. 

In 2020, the brown assets of Ping An were about RMB122.3 billion, accounting for less than 2% of total assets. Ping An’s total investments were RMB4.97 trillion, of which RMB68.9 billion (1.39%) were brown assets. Total loans were RMB2.95 trillion, of which RMB53.4 billion (1.81%) were brown assets.

We will continue to track and calculate the carbon emissions of assets.

Ping An’s direction and targets:

(1) Encourage investment in green assets: Give investing priority to zero carbon emissions and carbon elimination assets.

(2) Gradually withdraw from brown assets: Gradually reduce or withdraw investment in brown assets, such as coal, mining and thermal power generation. Ping An plans to divest from all thermal coal mining and thermal power generation projects by the end of 2035, except for projects that can achieve net-zero emissions. We expect to exit by the end of 2035 from the holding of shares, bonds and other capital market securities investments in companies that generate more than 30% of their revenue from thermal coal mining or thermal power businesses.

Carbon offsetting can only be used as a last resort because it does not represent valid mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It will only worsen climate change if carbon offsetting is used as a substitute for real climate action.

Our net-zero transition roadmap starts with reducing internal GHG emissions and using green electricity. For example, we have built green buildings and installed renewable energy generators in the workplace. We will also invest in green power plants or other assets and require these plants to sell us green electricity at the same price as traditional electricity.

We can purchase carbon credits to offset our emissions, but this method will be considered only after other reduction measures have been put in place.

Ping An understands the impacts and challenges that climate change brings to the insurance business and has committed to undertaking measures to address these challenges.

However, sustainability challenges are systemic in nature, meaning that they cannot be solved with one approach alone. The solution requires us to adopt systems thinking.

As a responsible financial services provider, Ping An supports China’s carbon goal and also bears responsibility of ensuring social cohesion and stability. Our business decisions and activities have great impact on people’s livelihoods and wellbeing.

China has set out a goal to achieve net-zero by 2060 premised on China’s actual condition, including economic development, employment rate, industry structure and social fabric. Many industrial sectors in China still highly rely on coal and gas. So we will adhere to the national timeline.

• Employee rights and interests – Ping An has formulated the Rights and Interests and Welfare Policies for Employees and promised to guarantee the legal rights and interests of every employee. Ping An provides open and diversified channels for feedback, complaints and reports and has formulated the Whistleblowing Management Procedure to encourage employees to report wrongdoing without fear of reprisal and safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.
• Employee training and development – Ping An offers every employee, from employees to executives, the opportunity to participate in various forms of training. In 2021, Ping An University cooperated with the top 10 leading business schools and more than 30 consulting institutions to provide face-to-face training to employees and insurance agents. The course resources include nearly 1,900 courses, with more than 1,600 courses open to member companies. All employees, contractors, and insurance agents can access online learning lectures to get support for professional certifications, such as the CFA, NPDP, and PMP.
• Employee welfare – Ping An offers commercial insurance, high-end medical health insurance, family health check-up packages and other benefits. Ping An has set up the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to enable employees to manage personal issues. In addition, the company supports female employees by providing breastfeeding rooms and corresponding facilities in the office.
• Diversity and equal opportunity – The Policy Statement on Employee Rights clarifies our attitude towards anti-discrimination, equal opportunity, and diversity, and trainings are regularly offered.
• Grievance – Ping An has established formal grievance channels and procedures for collecting and evaluating employees’ grievance relating to career development, rights, interests and welfare. Employees can report, if there is any, via the whistleblowing hotline (+86-755-22625145) and the email (lzxfjb@pingan.com.cn).

Ping An Life is implementing a high-quality transformation of the company agency team and optimization of the team structure to build a more sustainable team of agents with "high productivity, high quality, and high income".

Ping An Life has developed a series of digital tools to enable agent teams’ daily operation, enlargement, training and activity volume management. In addition, Ping An Life provides agents with various welfare benefits covering medical, accident, and pension. These include basic welfare security, pension fund, long-term service award, value-added services and medical check-up services. In 2020-21, Ping An Life fully upgraded in three aspects: agent benefits, care and management. 

In 2022, Ping An issued the Agent Rights and Interests Policy to guarantee the fairness and impartiality of agent recruitment and prohibit discrimination against agents. 

For more details, please visit Policy Statement on Agent Welfare and Management of Ping An Group. 

Internal training – Ping An promotes the culture and concept of fair and honest consumer rights protection among all employees. It has established a consumer rights protection mechanism for the Group and runs regular seminars and online training courses on consumer rights protection for staff. By December 31, 2021, nearly 300,000 employees had completed online learning.
Channels to file complaints and reports – Ping An Life receives complaints through the Ping An Group and Ping An Life Official websites, the Ping An Life WeChat public account and WeChat mini program, Weibo, TikTok, and insurance sales and renewal systems. The insurance agents’ pocket working platform, Pocket E, can also log customer complaints. Ping An also has a dedicated Consumer Advocacy Direct Line, with a customer agent team and 24 hours-a-day service to resolve consumer issues and complaints professionally and efficiently. The team connected with more than 256,000 visitors by the end of 2021, 1,111 visitors per day on average, with a 99% connection rate with customer service. 
Strengthen agent management – We have enhanced the quality of agent education on customer service. Ping An requires agents to participate in the training and pass an exam on sales skills and the Ping An Group’s Business Code of Conduct. Ping An conducts in-depth special inspection and routine business risk self-inspection. It has also strengthened the management and supervision of key risk areas, and strictly follows its quality management policy. Ping An aims to safeguard the rights and interests of consumers.
 

In response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Chinese government’s call for poverty alleviation, Ping An launched the Ping An Rural Communities Support program to support village officers, doctors and teachers in nine provinces and autonomous regions across China in 2018. Ping An promotes rural revitalization by supporting the development of industries, healthcare and education through the program. 

In 2021, Ping An provided RMB12 billion for industrial revitalization. Leveraging the Group’s premium medical resources, Ping An trained village doctors, upgraded village clinics and provided free health checkups and medical consultations for rural residents from its mobile Ping An Healthcare Diagnostics Center vehicle. During the year, Ping An held 69 events, including mobile health checkups and medical consultations in rural areas, to provide charitable healthcare services to 9,483 people. Ping An also recruited 875 volunteers in 2021, who provided over 20,000 hours of online and offline teaching services at 127 Ping An Hope Primary Schools. As of December 31, 2021, Ping An cumulatively provided approximately RMB41.9 billion for poverty alleviation and industrial revitalization, funded 119 Ping An Hope Primary Schools, and recruited nearly 10,000 volunteer teachers, who served approximately 370,000 hours.

For more information, please visit the Ping An 2021 Sustainability Report. 
 

Ping An pays close attention to emerging trends, including health and demographic changes. In order to better understand their impacts on insurance business, we continuously conduct research on various business risks and opportunities related to specific emerging trends. After a thorough evaluation of the business risks and opportunities, Ping An launches products and service plans to fulfill rising demands of the market.

Aging population and emerging health issues— Ping An published two research papers, the Health Insurance Market Insights Report 2021(Chinese only) and White Paper on Elderly Health Insurance Needs 2021(Chinese only). The papers discuss potential business opportunities for insurance products related to emerging social and demographic changes and associated health issues. The papers also present Ping An’s findings about the health problems emerging from social and demographic changes, as well as the emerging demands on pension funds due to the aging population. The gap between insurance products in the market and emerging demands from elderly diseases and sub-healthy populations is analyzed by researchers.

In this context, we believe the life insurance market is underserved. The aging population and accumulating household wealth present vast healthcare and eldercare insurance demands. Therefore, in products, Ping An Life created differentiated advantages with three core services: “insurance + health management”,“insurance+ high-end elderlycare”，and “insurance + home-based elderlycare”. Healthcare management covers customers' every life stage, with family doctor services, health assessments, reward programs, and an array of health plans. Elderly care includes home-based care and high-end elderly center care, combining financial protection with healthcare and tailored concierge services to meet the daily needs of senior living.

Urbanization — As stated in the Notice on Strengthening Financial Services for New Urban Residents issued jointly by China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) and the People’s Bank of China (PBC), new urban residents need more accessible and convenient financial services. The population growth of new urban residents is a substantial trend of urbanization in China. Ping An has closely studied the trend and evaluated the business risks and opportunities. Ping An’s White Paper of Financial Services for New Urban Residents 2022 (Chinese only) analyses the occupational risks, the lack of access to insurance channels and lack of suitable insurance products for new urban residents, and makes recommendations of insurance products and relevant services for this urbanization trend.

To address the emerging demands of insurance from this urbanization trend, Ping An is launching a series of exclusive products and green channels for new urban residents, including insurance, wealth management, financing and eldercare, where core business lines of Ping An are involved. The challenges of new urban residents, such as job instability, low participation in social insurance and poor overall risk resistance, are fully considered in the design of products and services. For example, Ping An Property & Casualty launched a series of work accident insurance products, which insure occupational risks specifically for new urban resident groups, e.g. food delivery workers, car-hailing drivers and domestic helpers. Ping An Life also launched a special accident insurance product, which provides customization options that enable new urban residents to select suitable insurance policies according to their occupational conditions.

Ping An is  driving the development of inclusive finance by implementing a technologically innovative financial service model to address the financing needs of micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and other underserved communities.

Technology innovation for access to finance – As announced in our August 2022 news release, Ping An Bank Satellite Enables Inclusive Finance, PingAn-3, as an earth observation optical remote sensing satellite, can obtain high-resolution image data that can help banks to grasp real operation data and other information in the upstream and downstream of the supply chain. The innovative use of satellite technology helps MSMEs with better accessibility to finance services by providing reliable remote sensing information as a supplement to loan collaterals and credit information. It also helps financial institutions to broaden distribution channels by reducing the cost of reviewing financing applications from MSMEs, which are usually associated with long industrial chains, numerous cross-regional businesses, difficulties in due diligence, and receivables that are small amounts and high frequency. Since Ping An Bank embarked on its Nebula Internet of Things (IoT) Program in 2019, it has launched the IoT satellites PingAn-1 and PingAn-2 to improve the IoT data communications on the ground. By connecting IoT devices, services can be extended to mines, forests, grasslands, deserts, oceans and other areas where ground signals are missing.

Global reach of service – As a typical example of the Group’s global services, Ping An Property & Casualty has provided risk protection services for public infrastructure and commercial facilities in 105 countries and regions around the world, such as Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Laos. Facilities include the Karot Hydropower Station in Pakistan, the China-Laos Railway, the Angola Kaikai Hydropower Station and many other international large-scale projects. In 2021, Ping An Property & Casualty provided RMB282.4 billion of risk protection for 467 overseas projects.

Innovation in branchless distribution channels – We have been enhancing branchless distribution channels in rural areas. For example, under Ping An Bank’s Farmer Assistance Initiative, point-of sale (POS) machines or equivalent equipment are deployed at rural stores in partnership with our card acquirers. Using the machines, debit card holders in rural areas can access a number of financial services, including small-amount withdrawal, cash remittance, transfer remittance, balance inquiry and fee payment services.

Ping An also launched its Rural Network Initiative to improve access to insurance services. Rural residents can join as co-insurers to provide various insurance products to local communities, so that a greater range of rural populations can access comprehensive financial services. By the end of 2021, more than 15,000 partners joined the network,  covering more than 500 counties, 1,600 towns and 11,000 administrative villages. As a result, more than 9 million rural households were able to access comprehensive insurance services.

Ping An attaches great importance to privacy protection, strictly abides by laws and regulations such as the Law of the People's Republic of China on Network Security, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Data Security, the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Personal Information regarding the collection, storage and use of personal privacy information, and has developed internal management systems such as the Personal Information Protection Code to clarify the management norms for each business process. By releasing the Ping An Group Privacy Protection Policy Statement and other means, we promise to collect user information in accordance with the principle of minimum necessity, ensure personal information security, and not rent, sell, or provide personal data. Ping An has established a sound personal information protection system, strictly controlled the collection, storage and use of relevant privacy information and implemented personal privacy protection in every business process.

Ping An conducts effective control of the sharing of customer privacy between business units by solid data management requirements and physical firewall. In the data management requirements, data sharing between subsidiaries is not allowed until data authorization is obtained. We have established an authorization network for data sharing between subsidiaries, which includes authorization by front-end customers to the “Privacy Policy” and agreement authorization for two-way sharing between back-end professional companies. Data sharing processing can only be carried out after each subsidiary has obtained user authorization at the front end and reached a data sharing agreement. In terms of firewalls, network isolation is implemented between companies, and banks and other companies deploy physical isolation in accordance with regulatory requirements. Access control is implemented according to the principles of need-to-know, minimization, and separation of duties. Firewall policy management is regularly reviewed to effectively control and restrict customer privacy sharing between different business units.

Ping An follows the principles of "legality and legitimacy, clear purpose and authorized consent" to collect personal data, and promises not to collect personal data through third parties. Each application will clearly explain to the user the scope and purpose of the data collection in each scenario through prompts, pop-up reminders, user information filling, and other methods. Ping An strictly complies with applicable laws, regulations, and regulatory requirements of each business line, and has established management systems such as the Data Lifecycle Security Management Specification to store user information for the minimum necessary time and to delete user personal privacy data properly through a sound data destruction management mechanism, while meeting regulatory requirements.

Ping An respects and safeguards users' personal information rights.  The Personal Information Protection Standards and other management systems clearly specify the content related to the protection of personal rights and require all business units to establish convenient mechanisms for users to access, copy, transfer, correct, supplement, and delete their personal information. It is required to establish a mechanism for accepting and processing applications for the company to explain its personal information processing rules. This requirement is implemented through the Privacy Policy of each application program, and users are provided with contact emails, phone numbers, and other methods to exercise their rights, providing users with convenient personal data management choices and fully safeguarding their personal information rights. In addition, Ping An provides users with personalized exit functions, and users can decide whether to enable personalized recommendations in the application program. Ping An promises that the company will not provide users' personal data to any third party beyond the scope permitted by law or business limitations. For the purpose of facilitating user's use of third-party services, we will inform the user of the shared data, sharing method, and sharing recipient, and obtain the user's consent.

Ping An has incorporated personal privacy protection into the entire process of application and related system development. The company has established management regulations, such as the Application System Development Specification, which requires the implementation of privacy protection requirements throughout the project's entire lifecycle. This includes project initiation, requirement analysis, system design, construction, testing, deployment, implementation, and operation and maintenance. The Group Security Center conducts rigorous compliance assessments of personal privacy information management at all stages, evaluating the effectiveness of privacy protection measures and protecting user privacy from the source. To promote the full implementation of the Group's privacy protection policy, Ping An provides comprehensive privacy protection training regularly for all employees and related third-party personnel who may come into contact with user personal privacy information. This training aims to enhance employees' compliance awareness and professional capabilities for privacy protection.

In 2022, Ping An carried out 8 sessions of privacy protection, which covered 100% of employees and third-party contractors who had access to customer privacy. Also, we did not receive any punishment or compensation related to privacy issues by regulators.

Ping An has set clear ethical goals in three areas: data use, algorithm development, and industry applications, and is continuously improving its AI governance framework.
Internally, Ping An established the AI Ethics Management Committee and formulated the Policy Statement on AI Ethics Governance of Ping An Group. Externally, Ping An actively participates in global governance of AI and strengthens industry and academic communication. It also participated in the development of the standard AI Risk Management Assessment Model of the China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI) to promote the standardized development of AI governance in the industry. 

Ping An has deeply embedded the notion of ESG into the Group's existing "251" risk management framework. The ESG risk control requirements are covered in the existing comprehensive financial risk management system. The original risk management system is strengthened in accordance with the ESG concept on different levels: 2 refers to the dual control of the Group and subsidiaries in terms of ESG governance, 5 refers to the integration of ESG risks and the five risk categories, and 1 refers to the establishment of a unified ESG management system and tools, to further improve the Group's risk governance capability and achieve long-term sustainable development.

Policy -  Ping An clearly defines ethical and standards in its Business Code of Conduct and Employee’s Code of Conduct for corporate activities and employees’ behavior. Both codes are applicable to all Ping An operations. The Business Code of Conduct clearly states Ping An’s principles and standards under six themes of business ethics. The Employee’s Code of Conduct states our principles and standards of employee behavior and categorizes them into five norms and 12 bans. Clear definitions, principles and policies of anti-bribery and corruption are also articulated.

Governance - The Audit and Risk Management Committee under the Board of Directors is the top-level body that is responsible for managing business ethics and corruptions issues. To ensure thorough enforcement of ethical standards and anti-corruption policies, the Group Internal Control Center and the Internal Control Departments of subsidiaries conduct internal audits of the Business Code of Conduct, the Employee’s Code of Conduct and procedures required by the Codes at least annually, covering all Ping An operations.

Supply chain - Ping An places great emphasis on compliance and anti-bribery and corruption through the whole value chain. We state our principles and standards of sustainability, including anti-corruption, for cooperation of our suppliers and partners in the Policy Statement on Sustainable Supply Chain. The requirements of anti-bribery and corruption for the supply chain are applicable to all suppliers of Ping An, who are required to acknowledge and agree to follow the anti-bribery and corruption policies of Ping An in contracts signed with us. Ping An verifies compliance of suppliers using proprietary big data systems for compliance risk detection in due diligence, on-going monitoring and ad-hoc audit programs.

Initiatives - To encourage ethical business practices and the professional integrity of the industry, Ping An leads and participates in joint initiatives with external stakeholders, especially local regulators, industry associations and peer companies. For example, Ping An supported the Integrity Finance Culture Program held by the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau of Shenzhen and developed a pilot vocational training program on incorruptible financial culture (Chinese only) for all financial institutions in Shenzhen.