Speech by SFST at HKQAA Kick-off Ceremony for Initiative for Advancing Sustainability Disclosure Ecosystem in Financial Industry orgasm Seminar (English just)
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Following is the speech by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr Christopher Hui, at the Kick-off Ceremony for the Initiative for Advancing a Sustainability Disclosure Ecosystem in the Financial Industry orgasm Seminar arranged by the Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) today (July 16):
P C (Chief Executive Officer of the HKQAA, Mr P C Chan), Daphne (Deputy Chief Executive of the China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited, Ms Daphne Wat), identified visitors, women and gentlemen,
Excellent early morning, in spite of the rain. It is an excellent satisfaction to join you for the Kick-off Ceremony for the Initiative for Advancing a Sustainability Disclosure Ecosystem in the Financial Industry.
I extend my genuine gratitude to the HKQAA under P C’s management for arranging this occasion, and for its unfaltering dedication to advancing sustainable financing in Hong Kong. I likewise invite our buddies from throughout the monetary sector. You are undoubtedly the leaders who have actually blazed a trail in embracing sustainability disclosure. Today is not simply the launch of an effort however rather a cumulative promise to construct a much better, greener future.
The world is at a specifying minute. Environment modification and sustainability obstacles are no longer concerns on the horizon – they are the truth we deal with now. The international shift towards sustainability has actually turned into one of the specifying motions of our age, developing from goal to need.
The numbers inform an extremely engaging story. In 2023, international environment financing streams reached an all-time high of around US$ 1.9 trillion, more than doubling in simply 3 years, and by 2028, this might reach a minimum of US$ 6 trillion. This trajectory shows that financing, along with banks, should belong to the option, helping with sustainable financial investments that will specify the financial success of the future.
Hong Kong is distinctively placed to lead this modification. We are not just a worldwide monetary centre however likewise an emerging green financing center. With our deep swimming pools of liquidity, advanced regulative structures, and smooth connection to international markets, Hong Kong has actually ended up being the entrance to mobilise capital in attending to local and international sustainability obstacles.
In 2025, green and sustainable financial obligation released in Hong Kong went beyond a remarkable US$ 76 billion, with green and sustainable bonds set up here representing about US$ 38 billion, or over 40 percent of the local overall in Asia – an accomplishment that exhibits market self-confidence in our platform.
The Government has actually presented a detailed suite of efforts to promote green financing. Under our Government Sustainable Bond Programme, we have actually provided considering that May 2019 federal government green bonds amounting to about HK$ 258 billion, consisting of the world’s very first tokenised green bond released by a federal government and the world’s very first digital bond offering incorporating e-CNY and e-HKD. Apart from federal government bonds, we have actually offered assistance to the issuance of green and sustainable financial obligation instruments by extending the Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme to 2027.
Capability structure likewise stays at the heart of development. We have actually authorized over 11 000 applications for training programs since June 2026, covering both specialists and even trainees under the Pilot Green and Sustainable Finance Capacity Building Support Scheme. This guarantees experts stay abreast of the most recent advancements in sustainable financing, driving development and enhancing Hong Kong’s one-upmanship. The Hong Kong Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance was likewise broadened this year, including production and ICT (details and interactions innovation) to its initial 4 sectors. Stage 2 now consists of environment modification adjustment along with mitigation, promoting financial investment in activities that both address environment modification triggers and reduce its effects, guaranteeing robust, reliable capital streams towards sustainable jobs.
For carbon market, Core Climate under HKEX (Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited) is actively checking out cross-border carbon trading settlements with Greater Bay Area equivalents, in addition to establishing a wider community for green items on its platform, which are important for connecting local and international carbon markets.
As markets develop, so too does the regulative landscape. Openness in sustainability reporting has actually ended up being vital. Our Roadmap on Sustainability Disclosure (Roadmap on Sustainability Disclosure in Hong Kong: Ambition Assurance Enablement), released in December 2024, sets out a clear path for big openly responsible entities to totally embrace the ISSB Standards (International Financial Reporting Standards – Sustainability Disclosure Standards) by no behind 2028. This dedication was worldwide identified when the IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) Foundation verified in June in 2015 that Hong Kong is amongst the very first jurisdictions worldwide to target complete adoption of the ISSB standards.
Attaining regulative positioning needs more than guidelines – it requires collaboration, partnership, and capacity-building. As arrangers, underwriters, financiers, and property supervisors, you all have actually been necessary partners for taking part in and adding to this course. Today, with the launch of the Initiative for Advancing a Sustainability Disclosure Ecosystem in the Financial Industry, we take a strong advance in reinforcing Hong Kong’s preparedness to unify, innovate, work together, and lead in sustainable financing.
Leveraging HKQAA’s information disclosure and guarantee program and extending it throughout the monetary sector, this effort uses you a structured, reputable, and scalable structure for gathering and validating sustainability information from your customers, investees, and service partners. It minimizes the problem of bespoke information demands – changing them with a standardised technique that works throughout your whole portfolio. It likewise boosts your regulative preparedness, with guarantee that the information you depend on satisfies the quality requirements anticipated by your regulators and the Hong Kong requirements.
By lowering intricacy and enhancing effectiveness, this effort is not simply a regulative tool – it is a tactical enabler for banks to lead in sustainability. And this is simply the start. As more organizations sign up with, the environment will grow more powerful and better for all of you as individuals.
I motivate banks here today to accept and add to this effort. Your active engagement will form the community and set the requirement for the area. The Government likewise stays totally devoted to combining Hong Kong’s function as a premier sustainable financing centre in assistance of the country’s double carbon objectives. We will continue to work carefully with our partners to establish an extensive, dynamic, and globally lined up green financing community.
Partnership is the lifeline of sustainable financing. The difficulties we deal with are merely too huge for any single organisation to fix alone. Together, let’s construct a sustainability disclosure environment that is robust, scalable, and primarily notably relied on – one that places Hong Kong as the indisputable sustainable financing center of Asia.
Thank you.