The Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group co-chaired by the HKMA and the SFC (Steering Group) announced on 15 July 2021 the next steps to advance its strategy to bolster Hong Kong’s position as a leader in green and sustainable finance and help transition the financial ecosystem towards carbon neutrality. The Steering Group will focus on (i) climate-related disclosures and sustainability reporting, (ii) carbon market opportunities and (iii) the new Centre for Green and Sustainable Finance (Centre).

Climate-related disclosures & sustainability reporting: The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) will collaborate with the Financial Reporting Council and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants to work on a roadmap to evaluate and potentially adopt a new standard which would be built on the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures framework.

Carbon market opportunities: The Steering Group has set up a Carbon Market Work Stream co-chaired by the SFC and HKEX to assess the feasibility of developing Hong Kong as a regional carbon trading centre to strengthen collaboration in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Centre for Green and Sustainable Finance: The Steering Group has launched the Centre to help the financial industry manage the risks and capture the opportunities presented by climate change. It will serve as a repository for resources, data and analytics which support the transition to a more sustainable development pathway.

For more details on the aforesaid announcement by the Steering Group, please see: link.