On 12 January 2023 (Thursday), HKGFA is honoured to co-organise and moderate the panel discussion on “Scaling Transition Finance and Carbon Markets towards a Net Zero Future” with the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), at the Asian Financial Forum (AFF).

In the session’s opening remarks, Ms. Salina Yan, JP (Permanent Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) (Financial Services), The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China) shared the government’s efforts to boost green and sustainable finance opportunities in Hong Kong through collaboration, with core actions focusing on product development, taxonomy, disclosure and capacity building.

The panel session moderated by Ms. Chaoni Huang (HKGFA Vice President and Secretary General; Managing Director, Head of Sustainable Capital Markets APAC, BNP Paribas), with esteemed panel speakers Sir William Russell (Former Lord Mayor, City of London; Co-chair, UK-China Green Finance Taskforce), Ms. Glenda So (Co-Head of Markets, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX)), Mr. Freddy Wong (Head of Asia Pacific, Invesco Fixed Income, Invesco Ltd.) and Dr Lin Wenjie (Deputy Director General Shanghai Municipal Financial Regulatory Bureau) discussed the following:

• The importance of a transition taxonomy for establishing credible and just transition plans;
• The collaborative efforts that can be made between Mainland China, Hong Kong and the international market to achieve the harmonisation of standards in transition finance (i.e., G20 Transition Finance Framework and Common Ground Taxonomy);
• The need for private and public sector partnerships to accelerate just transition financing; and
• The role of Hong Kong’s voluntary carbon market (VCM) in achieving net zero