Green finance: Hong Kong’s expertise can help Asia’s emerging markets fill climate funding gap, IFC regional head says

‘Hong Kong has three strengths that are indispensable for fostering climate financing: technical, legal and financial knowledge,’ says Riccardo Puliti

Countries in Asia-Pacific consume a disproportionate amount of coal and are among the world’s most vulnerable to climate change

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A solar power plant capable of generating 192 megawatts of peak electricity floats in Cirata Reservoir in West Java, Indonesia, shortly before its inauguration on November 9, 2023. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:30am, 19 Feb 2024

Hong Kong’s green financing expertise can help emerging markets in Asia-Pacific fill an enormous funding gap for tackling climate change, according to the regional head of International Finance Corp (IFC).

“Hong Kong has three strengths that are indispensable for fostering climate financing: technical, legal and financial knowledge,” Riccardo Puliti, regional vice-president for Asia-Pacific, told the Post ahead of Hong Kong Green Week, which starts February 26.

“Home to the region’s largest international bond market, one of the most active equity markets, and nearly 200 ESG [environment, social and governance] investment funds, besides arranging over a third of green and sustainable bond issuance in 2022, Hong Kong has created a cluster of knowledge that can be exported to emerging markets in Asia and the Pacific.”

Washington-based IFC is the arm of the World Bank Group that focuses exclusively on the private sector in emerging and developing markets.

Indonesian women sit on a hill as the Suralaya coal power plant looms in the background in Cilegon, Indonesia, on January 8, 2023. Photo: AP

With a quarter of the world’s population consuming 60 per cent of its coal, the eastern Asia-Pacific region alone accounts for 39 per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the World Bank.