Greater Bay Area green financing deals climb to a record US$9.3 billion in second quarter

Name: High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges
Uploaded: 2023-07-28T02:18:25.000Z
Duration: 6 min 19 s
Description: High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges

Funding for ESG projects in the region reached 66.8 billion yuan (US$9.3 billion) in the second quarter, exceeding the previous high of 56.8 billion yuan in the first quarter

ESG disclosures of the more than 2,000 companies operating in the bay area rose to 73 per cent last year, a marginal increase from 71 per cent a year earlier

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Companies in the Greater Bay Area are increasingly resorting to green financing for funding projects with ESG benefits. Photo: Shutterstock

Eric Ng

Published: 10:18am, 28 Jul 2023

Green and sustainable finance deals in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), one of China’s priority development regions, rose to a record in the second quarter of the year, boosted by the Hong Kong government’s jumbo bond sales, according to a study.

Debt and loans issued to fund projects with environmental and social benefits in the area, amounted to 66.8 billion yuan (US$9.3 billion) in the three months to June 30, surpassing the previous high of 56.8 billion yuan achieved in the previous quarter.

Volumes grew 80 per cent to 121.7 billion yuan in the year’s first six months from the same period last year.

The report, released on Thursday by HSBC and CECEP Environmental Consulting Group, a unit of state-owned China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group, assessed the environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance of the region, which comprises Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in the southern Guangdong province.

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High hopes for China’s Greater Bay Area, but integrating 11 cities will pose challenges

“The steady economic and social development of the GBA continues to drive improvements in regional ESG performance,” said Liao Yuan, general manager of CECEP (Hong Kong) Investment, a subsidiary of the group. “Respective governments’ consistent efforts in advancing high-quality development will not only fuel the growth of green financing in the region, but also further reinforce the GBA’s edge in areas such as clean and renewable energy.”

The Guangdong government encourages financial institutions in the bay area to fast track green financing and facilitate the stock market listings of technology enterprises to drive the region’s transformation towards advanced and high-value manufacturing, said Daniel Chan, HSBC’s head of Greater Bay Area.