香港地球之友綠色金融顧問Michele Leung / Michele Leung, Green Finance Advisor of Friends of the Earth (HK)
央行與監管機構綠色金融網絡(NGFS)是由一群批中央銀行和監管機構組成，旨在加快氣候和環境風險管理工作。在去年四月發表的第一份綜合報告中，它指出氣候變化是經濟和金融體系結構變化的根源。最近，歐盟公布的《歐洲綠色協議》談到其最新的增長策略，並以2050年或之前成為全球首個達至炭中和的大洲為目標 。同時，英倫銀行發布一份討論文件，提出了2021年氣候相關風險的兩年期探索性方案的建議，目的是測試大型銀行、保險集團和金融系統對不同氣候變化路徑的適應能力。可以按此連結了解更多全球相關政策。
究竟氣候變化怎樣跟財務風險扯上關係？ 極端天氣狀況將破壞供應鏈並增加業務成本，並影響資本市場中金融資產的定價。因此，氣候變化無可否認是投資和企業面臨的最緊迫金融風險來源之一。根據國際能源署和國際可再生能源機構於2017年公布的數據，從總體上看，過渡風險造成的損失估計將高達20兆美元。遺憾的是，現時還是沒有很多人意識到或特別關注氣候變化。
在香港，證監會早前發布了《有關在資產管理中納入環境、社會及管治因素和氣候風險的調查》，指出大多數資產持有人期望資產管理公司為氣候風險進行識別、評估和管理。但是，在660間資產管理公司中，只有23％的流程能夠管理實際和過渡風險的財務影響。調查結果亦指出「氣候風險的討論幾乎不會出現在客戶參與過程和風險評估中。」
這個知識鴻溝，能通過更理想的資訊披露和加強對氣候變化相關風險及影響的認識而拉近。受益於法規事務的支持，披露要求現已得以提升，並從性質披露轉型至量化披露。另一方面，企業應開始研究自己的運營手法並分析自家公司的供應鏈和下游影響，例如，其業務是否會受到碳成本上升的影響，還是在容易遭受旱災或水浸等自然風險的地區運營？在了解並意識到風險後，他們將能進一步評估和量化財務風險。在投資方面，資產持有人、資產經理、投資經理和銀行應共同努力，評估他們在投資組合層面上與環境和氣候相關的風險。他們應該開始衡量風險、訂立指標和目標，然後參與並執行氣候變化政策。
總括而言，無可否認法規對於促進及支持有效的氣候政策及整合，扮演著一個基礎及獨特的角色。
The Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) is set up by a group of Central Banks and Supervisors with the aim to accelerate work on climate and environmental risk management. In its First Comprehensive report launched last April, it stated that climate change is a source of economic and financial risks. Recently, European Union published its European Green Deal which stated as its new growth strategy, it also targets to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050. In the meanwhile, Bank of England circulated a discussion paper setting out the proposal for the 2021 Biennial Exploratory Scenario on climate-related risk, with the objective to test the resilience of the largest banks, insurers and the financial system to different possible climate pathways. Please refer to this link for an overview on related global policies.
How climate change is related to financial risk? In simple terms, extreme weather events would disrupt supply chains and increase business costs, which will impact the pricing of financial assets in capital markets. Hence, climate change is undeniably one of the most imminent source of financial risks for both investments and businesses. According to IEA and IRENA (2017), the estimates of losses from transition risk would reach up to USD 20 trillion when looking at the economy broadly. Regrettably, not many people are aware of or paying enough attention to climate change.
In Hong Kong, SFC published the Survey on Integrating Environmental, Social and Governance Factors and Climate Risks recently, in Asset Management, and stated that majority of asset owners expect asset management firms to identify, assess and manage climate risk. Nevertheless, only 23% of the 660 asset management firms have process in place to manage the financial impact of physical and transition risks. It also cited “discussion of climate risks is almost non-existent in client engagement and suitability assessment.”
The gap would potentially be bridged by better disclosures and deeper understanding on the associated risks and impacts from climate change. Thanks to the regulatory efforts, the disclosure requirements have been enhanced and transformed from largely qualitative to quantitative disclosure. On the other hand, businesses should start looking into their own operations and analyze their supply chain and downstream impacts, i.e. are their businesses subject to increasing carbon cost or are they operate in regions that are prone to physical risk like drought or flooding? After understanding and recognizing these risks, they would further assess and quantify them in financial terms. On the investment front, asset owners, asset managers, investment managers and banks should all work together to evaluate their environmental and climate related risks on portfolio-level. They should start measuring the risks, establish metrics and targets, then engage and implement their own climate change policy.
On top of these, and undeniably, the regulation will play a foundational and distinctive role in facilitating and supporting effective climate change policies and integrations.
