The regional bloc also said it aimed to “raise the proportion of renewable energy in its energy mix to 23 per cent by 2025”. The proposal involved investments totalling an estimated US$290 billion.

Nine out of its 10 members have also committed to attaining net-zero emissions by 2050.

Monday’s panellists also discussed how Asean countries could narrow the gap between their sustainability ambitions and their development needs.

Jessica Chan Suk-mei, the MTR Corporation’s head of sustainability, said the rail giant had just signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysia to build a mass transit line for the country.

The transport operator was using the same expertise employed in Hong Kong to “help maximise the benefits of the available land and also to create a community, including residential [areas], schools and other public facilities”, she added.

“If we provide a seamless environment for our tenants there, you don’t have to go too far away and can enjoy the community facility there.”

Some commentators have hailed Hong Kong’s approach of building properties that link to new mass transit railway stations, describing it as providing a model for efficient and sustainable development that helps reduce driving and uses less space.

Hendrik Rosenthal, a CLP Holdings director overseeing sustainability, also spoke at the panel and gave an outline of the electricity firm’s 80 assets in Hong Kong, mainland China, Australia and India.

Some were already operating at net-zero carbon emissions and others still relied on coal, he said and acknowledged the difficulties of phasing out certain power sources among Asean countries to mitigate climate change.

“This is the crux of what we are trying to achieve. In terms of expanding and having investment opportunities in wind, solar or even electricity storage space, there’s plenty of them,” he said.

“The harder part is actually how we accelerate and how we finance an early phase-out of coal plants.”

Hong Kong Green Finance Association executive vice-president Tracy Wong Harris said the Asean market was expected to offer huge opportunities and there had been a tremendous transition in terms of financing activities.

She cited an industry report indicating that energy-related transitions in the region were similar to that of China’s Greater Bay Area and suggested companies look at the latter’s own decarbonisation pathway.

The bay area refers to Beijing’s ambitious initiative to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland cities into an economic powerhouse.

“The technical experience we can bring to Asean [countries] is also sustainable finance,” she said. “Beyond that, the important thing is how you incentivise property owners and developers to make existing building blocks more energy-efficient earlier.”

Fellow panellist and OCBC Bank Hong Kong chief executive Ivy Au-Yeung Lai-ling said the lender last year set a target to raise S$50 billion (HK$286 billion) by 2025 for its sustainable finance portfolio.

“I’m actually quite optimistic. I think that we have a lot of companies that care about this. If you look at banks, of all the products we have, sustainable finance seems to be more advanced,” Au-Yeung said.

“We are already thinking about how to support small and medium enterprises, so more people will care about the subject.”

Harris said sustainable finance as an industry had seen considerable growth, citing a forecast from last year that gave it an estimated value of more than US$1.7 trillion worldwide.

She also pointed to Asia as a source of faster uptake, as the continent last year saw double-digit growth despite global economic headwinds.