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China launches world’s largest carbon-trading scheme as part of 2060 carbon neutrality goal
Hong Kong can use digital tech to build trust in its carbon market and strengthen its position as an international emissions trading hub
- Digital technology, can help companies and participants in the carbon market to access data and information about carbon credit generating projects, and build transparency and greater trust in Hong Kong’s voluntary emissions trading platform
- Blockchain may be used to underwrite carbon projects, involving auditor lawyers, regulators and the stock exchange to verify carbon credits from different projects
Hong Kong can use digital technology to build trust in its carbon market and strengthen its position as an international emissions trading hub, a panel organised by the government and the Cyberport hi-tech hub said on Friday.
The use of digital technology can help companies and participants in the carbon market to access data and information about how projects can generate carbon credits, and also build transparency and greater trust in Hong Kong’s nascent voluntary carbon trading platform, said Mohit Grover, risk advisory partner at Deloitte China.
“The kind of transparency, enabled through digital platforms, is going to be one of the key contributing factors of building more trust in the carbon markets,” Grover told the panel at the Digital Economy Summit.
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China launches world’s largest carbon-trading scheme as part of 2060 carbon neutrality goal
He added that more local projects that generate carbon credits and collaborations with the Greater Bay Area could also help drive trust in Hong Kong’s carbon market.
China’s suspended voluntary carbon market moves a step closer to relaunch
Core Climate is an international carbon marketplace for the trading of carbon credits and other instruments to support the transition to net zero.
Hong Kong has no compulsory cap-and-trade requirement for carbon emissions, but polluters can offset their supply chain emissions by purchasing credits on the voluntary market.
“We might consider using blockchain to do underwriting [of carbon projects] involving auditor-lawyers, SFC, regulators, and the stock exchange to do verification for all these carbon credits from different projects,” said William Yu, founder and CEO of the World Green Organisation, an independent NGO at Friday’s panel.
“We can start from the beginning to oversee and monitor the project’s development, verification and certification. And finally, using technology, we can have better data traceability to increase the [project’s] transparency, and automatically this will go finally to the Core Climate platform.”
Hong Kong has a key role to play in connecting China’s carbon market participants – including producers of green or clean energy and buyers of carbon credit – with the rest of the world, said Glenda So, HKEX’s group head of emerging business and fixed income and currency, at a panel last month.
“A unique advantage or value proposition for Hong Kong is that we have a very good financial infrastructure. We’re also very used to, and we know how to connect with China,” she told a panel at the Scaling up Sustainable Finance in Asia conference organised by Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association.
“With our experience in stock connect and bond connect, there is a place that Hong Kong can play in connecting China with the rest of the world,” So said.
