Hong Kong announces priorities to strengthen sustainable finance ecosystem
The Green & Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group announced, on 7 August, its key priorities to further promote and consolidate Hong Kong’s role as a leading sustainable finance hub.
The Steering Group aims to coordinate the management of climate and environmental risks to the financial sector, accelerate the growth of green and sustainable finance in Hong Kong and support the government’s climate strategies.
The key priorities identified by the Steering group are to:
- Establish world-class regulation through alignment with global standards by developing a comprehensive Hong Kong roadmap on adopting the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Sustainability Disclosure Standards.
- Boost Hong Kong’s vibrancy and competitiveness through capacity building, data enhancement and technology innovation of the finance ecosystem to support net-zero transition across the economy. This will involve workshops to support non-listed companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in their sustainability planning and reporting, developing a data portal to increase the availability and accessibility of climate-related data and exploring opportunities for public-private partnerships to promote the development of technology-driven solutions.
- Grow dynamic, trusted markets with diverse products to mobilise capital at larger scale to support the net-zero transition. A dedicated workstream will explore ways to further support financial institutions and corporates in their transition planning and reporting, and efforts will be extended to build Hong Kong into an international carbon market to connect opportunities across the Mainland, Asia and the rest of the world.
“The climate transition brings tremendous business and investment opportunities,” said Securities & Futures Commission chief executive Julia Leung, Co-Chair of the Steering Group. “Technology is essential to increasing market efficiency and transparency. As a priority, the Steering Group will work with relevant stakeholders to build Hong Kong into a green fintech hub.”
