Markets & Regulation

a vibrant and diverse sustainable finance market

Green and sustainable debt market

Hong Kong's green and sustainable debt market has been expanding rapidly over the past few years. Green and sustainable bonds and loans issued in Hong Kong reached US$ 80.5 billion in 2022, which increased by over 40% from 2021. The Government has been leading by example with close to US$16 billion institutional and retail green bonds issued under the Government Green Bond Programme as of February 2023 to support government green projects. Hong Kong’s successful issuance of the world’s first tokenised government green bond worth around US$100 million in February 2023 has also marked an important milestone in combining green finance and fintech.

SFC-authorised ESG funds

There were 195 SFC-authorised ESG funds with total AUM of USD156.5 billion as of 30 June 2023. Some of their key investment themes include sustainable energy and climate change.

HKEX’s STAGE and Core Climate

HKEX’s STAGE provides information, access and transparency on a wide range of sustainable, green and social investment products. HKEX also launched Core Climate, Hong Kong’s international carbon marketplace, which enables participants to source, hold, trade, settle and retire voluntary carbon credits.

Taxonomy

Hong Kong is working towards proposing a local green classification framework, which aims to provide guidance on how to identify and classify activities that can be considered green.

World-class regulation

Hong Kong has been at the forefront of implementing world-class regulation in sustainable finance.

Our regulatory initiatives below are crucial in strengthening climate-related financial risk management and promoting the flow of ESG information.

Guideline on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), which requires authorized insurers to consider climate risks (among other relevant and material risks) in the ERM framework

Last update : 31 March 2023