It gives me great pleasure to join the United Nations Sustainable Investing & ESG Conference. When it comes to Green and Sustainable Finance, the Government has two strategic priorities – 1) To achieve carbon neutrality for Hong Kong by 2050; and 2) To develop Hong Kong into an international centre for Green Finance as supported by our country’s 14th Five Year Plan.

Last year, the Government and our financial regulators jointly established the Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group. It provides strategic directions with a view to coordinating regulatory and market development efforts, showcasing our commitment to promoting Green and Sustainable Finance in Hong Kong. Since 2018, a total of US$ 3.5 billion have been raised from 2 issuances of Government Green Bonds, and we are the pioneering Asian Government to have issued Green Bond of 30 year tranche, attracting orders more than seven times its issuance size. In May this year, we also launched the Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme to encourage private sector participation, by subsidising eligible bond issuers and loan borrowers their debt issuance costs, and external review expenses.

We will continue to seize the unprecedented opportunities brought by Green and Sustainable Finance, and I am sure this conference will be an insightful and rewarding prelude to a greener and more sustainable future for all of us.

For the past year and a half, the world’s attention has been justifiably gripped by COVID-19. What began as a potential threat looming on the horizon quickly spread, with a devastating socio-economic impact felt worldwide. As the world gradually, but steadily, begins to emerge from the nadir of the pandemic, our collective attention now turns to the crucial task of rebuilding.

At the same time, however, it is important not to lose sight of the threat of climate change, which is manifesting itself far more slowly than COVID-19, but whose effects will be even more devastating. As a stark reminder, while the pandemic raged worldwide in 2020, the Earth experienced its second-hottest year since the start of record-keeping in 1880. The hottest year on record was 2016, and the third-hottest, 2019. As a result of these changes, the world now suffers five times more disasters than 50 years ago, with Asia accounting for nearly one-third of these disasters and almost half of the resultant deaths.

Thankfully, the private sector is now more than ever taking a leading role in combatting climate change, including through sustainable investment and green finance. Sustainable investment is growing at an impressive pace around the world. Private companies are recognizing that investing in the Sustainable Development Goals could unlock trillions of dollars in new market opportunities.

However, significant challenges remain. Even before COVID-19, the financing gap was $2.5 trillion per year. We, therefore, need to mobilize commercial finance and private investment on a vast scale to achieve the SDGs, especially in Asia and the Pacific. To address this challenge, the public and private sectors need to work together, more closely than ever before.

UNESCAP is committed to promoting sustainability and ESG while connecting the public and private sectors to help our region accelerate SDG investments towards achieving the 2030 Agenda.

[1] National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2021. https://www.noaa.gov/news/2020-was-earth-s-2nd-hottest-year-just-behind-2016

[1] World Meteorological Association, Atlas of Mortality and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Water Extremes (1970–2019), 2021.

[1] United Nations, 2019. https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/dsgsm1340.doc.htm

World Green Organisation (WGO) is pleased to collaborate, once again, with the UNESCAP to host the second Sustainable Investing Conference. It is an honor to obtain the unreserved support of the United Nations. We are also thankful for the generous support from our Conference Partners, the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), for their efforts to propel the sustainable finance agenda in Hong Kong.

The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the international community’s approach towards the sustainable development challenges of our time. The pandemic revealed our vulnerabilities and exposed us to the harsh realities of the Anthropocene, a period in our planet’s history where humans have drastically altered the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Climate change and COVID-19 are both global problems and they are inter-related. We are experiencing how environmental degradation can have a substantial impact on social wellbeing and economic activity. Zoonotic diseases, such as, COVID-19 will continue to jump from animals to human populations as we destroy natural ecosystems and if we do not rethink our current agriculture, farming and forestry practices. As the ecosystems which we rely on collapse (in part due to human activity and climate change), the environmental services they provide will also diminish.

We need to act now. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address the crisis, and Green Finance and Technology will be critical to a fostering an equitable and effective post-pandemic economic recovery. COVID-19 and climate change have another thing in common. They are both an opportunity and reason for us to come together to drive effective change that benefits all stakeholders. Whether it is improving workplace safety and wellness or transitioning our economy towards meeting the Paris Agreement targets, we need to innovate and cooperate. Hong Kong, as a world-leading financial center, is now at the forefront of the climate change discussion. Government officials, financial market participants, academics and civil society are coming together to create a paradigm shift in the role of finance and sustainable investing.

This year we have launched a coalition platform to engage corporations across Asia and facilitate the transition to TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Risk Disclosures) reporting standards. Furthermore, a green fund will be established and launched in this conference to support numerous smart city developments and demonstrate to investors and asset managers that ESG investing can effectively contribute to our city and planet. It is promising to see that the number of supporting organisations for this Conference has grown drastically. This is an opportunity for all stakeholders to come together and explore how Hong Kong can play its role in creating a net-zero global economy, and I hope we seize it!