JA Solar – Qingming Li – 2025
Summary
Qingming Li advanced JA Solar’s supply chain governance, climate disclosure, and policy strategy by delivering data-driven solutions designed for immediate implementation.
Goals
To further strengthen ESG management and enhance climate-related disclosure, JA Solar enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Qingming Li to take on key tasks. These included strengthening supplier ESG oversight through assessment, drafting the outline for JA Solar’s TCFD report, and conducting quantitative policy research to analyze how international climate frameworks and policies affect global photovoltaic markets, thereby providing insights to guide the company’s long-term strategy.
Solutions
In the supply chain, Qingming reviewed approximately 40 supplier assessments across four categories, verified Conflict Minerals Reporting Template submissions, drafted an outline for a supplier ESG performance report, mapped gaps against Sedex standards, and compiled a CSA issue list. The findings were incorporated into supplier management to guide risk control and engagement. For disclosure, she benchmarked leading companies, aligned reporting with CSA, CDP, and IFRS S2 standards, and drafted JA Solar’s first TCFD outline. Additionally, she calculated environmental data from 31 sites, improving internal data governance and supporting Hong Kong IPO reporting. For policy strategy, she analyzed over 20 years of IEA PV data (exceeding 2,100 GW) across six regions and eight global policy windows, creating visualizations to illustrate the relationship between policies/frameworks (e.g., IPCC, COP, EU CBAM/NZIA, and United States IRA) and PV market growth.
Potential Impact
These projects combined quantitative rigor with practical adoption: supplier assessments and the Sedex and CSA list improved ESG compliance, TCFD reporting preparations enhanced transparency, governance, and investor confidence, and policy analytics provided leadership with important insights to align strategy with global climate frameworks. Together, the work strengthened JA Solar’s position as both an industry leader and a sustainability pioneer.
