Green finance: Greater Bay Area pilot for climate-mitigation projects to meet international standards, draw global investors
- Policymakers meet in Hong Kong to discuss ways to further integrate the sustainable finance markets of the Greater Bay Area
- Several decarbonisation pilots will embrace international disclosure and verification standards while fostering a regional green finance ecosystem
Greater Bay Area (GBA) regulators are pushing several pilot schemes for decarbonisation projects that will embrace international disclosure and verification standards and help foster a regional green-finance ecosystem, according to the Hong Kong Green Finance Association.
Creating such an environment would be critical for the US$2 trillion of fundraising that is needed to finance China’s carbon neutrality goal by 2060, said the association’s chairman Ma Jun, who also co-chairs the G20 nations’ sustainable finance working group.
“It is important to have demonstration projects to illustrate what are the essential elements to build up a regional green finance ecosystem,” he said in an interview.
Ma, who earlier was chief economist at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), where he drove projects like “harmonisation” of green bond standards, has also worked as an economist at Deutsche Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
“Once we have the project categories, we can specify the standards for project labelling and the disclosure requirements. Project developers can then find ways and policy support to make their projects bankable.”
