Discover engaging green finance events this March 2025. Browse the calendar and register for events that align with your interests through the links below:
以上一圖看清2025年3月精彩的綠色金融活動！如欲參加及了解活動詳情，歡迎瀏覽以下網址:
6 Mar [2] Transition Finance Case Study in Asia
27 Mar [4] Unlocking Capital for Sustainability 2025 – Hong Kong: Mobilising Capital for the Green Transition
The first primer in our new Green and Sustainable Finance Spotlight Series explores transition finance – a concept that aims to bridge the gap between traditional and sustainable finance.
What is Transition Finance?
Transition finance refers to financing activities that fund emission reduction
projects in carbon-intensive industries and sectors. This supports companies in
their gradual shift towards more sustainable business models aligned with the Paris
Agreement’s climate goals.
Unlike traditional green finance which focuses on investments in projects already recognised as sustainable, transition finance recognises that many industries need time and funding to transform and achieve decarbonisation.
This financing approach includes various instruments such as:
Market Developments
July 2017: The world’s first transition bond was issued by Castle Peak Power Company Limited, a subsidiary of a Hong Kong electric power company
Dec 2020: The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) released its initial climate transition finance handbook, providing a framework for credible transition strategies
2024: More than US$20 billion was raised through transition bonds, more than four-times the previous annual issuance record set in 2021, and bringing the total to over US$38 billion, according to Environmental Finance Data
2024: Global energy transition investment grew 11% to hit a record US$2.1 trillion, led by electrified transport and renewables, according to BloombergNEF
Jan 2025: The Financial Stability Board (FSB) emphasised the role of transition plans in addressing climate risks, urging standardisation to enhance their usability by financial authorities in a report in January 2025
Why Should Companies and Investors Care?
For companies, particularly those in carbon-intensive sectors, transition finance:
For investors:
Getting Involved
For Companies:
For Investors:
The transition to a low-carbon economy requires unprecedented investment across all sectors. Transition finance bridges this gap by helping high-emitting industries transform their operations while maintaining economic stability. With mounting regulatory pressure and expanding net-zero commitments, transition finance will play an increasingly important role in global decarbonisation efforts.
Green Finance Engagement Team
Global clean energy investments must more than double to US$4.5 trillion annually by 2030 to meet climate goals. This new series explores how green finance can drive this transition, examining investment gaps, regional disparities, and solutions for a sustainable future.
The global energy transition is one of the most significant challenges—and opportunities—of our time. As countries strive to meet climate goals, the need to shift away from fossil fuels toward clean and sustainable energy systems has never been more urgent.
But this transition comes with a price tag: meeting global energy and climate targets will require unprecedented investment.
Drawing from the International Energy Agency’s flagship World Energy Outlook and related research, the first post in this blog series introduces the investment landscape of energy transition and sets the stage for exploring how green finance can drive progress in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and electrification.
What This Series Will Cover
In this blog series, we’ll explore how green finance can address the most pressing challenges of the energy transition, including:
The Energy Transition in Numbers
Global energy transition investment reached a record US$2.1 trillion in 2024, driven by electrified transport, renewable energy, and power grids, according to BNEF’s Energy Transition Investment Trends 2025 report released at the end of January.
However, to align with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) pathway, annual global clean energy investments need to reach US$4.5 trillion by 2030, according to the World Energy Outlook.
Investment in emerging technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture fell by 23 per cent year-on-year to US$155 billion in 2024, highlighting the need for more public and private sector collaboration to de-risk these sectors, according to the BNEF report
Regional disparities also remain in terms of energy transition investments. China accounted for US$818 billion of global energy transition investment last year, while the US and EU saw stagnant or declining investment levels of US$338 billion and US$381 billion respectively. This underscores the need for more equitable distribution of resources to support global decarbonisation efforts.
Key Takeaways:
A Call to Action
The energy transition is achievable, but the clock is ticking. Governments, financial institutions, and private investors must act decisively to mobilise the funding needed to build a sustainable future.
In our next post, we’ll dive into the regional disparities in clean energy investment and explore how green finance can address these inequities. Stay tuned as we continue this journey through the transformative power of green finance.
[ESG分析師洞見分享] 劉兆光, CESGA
隨著全球對可持續發展的關注與日俱增，環境、社會及管治（ESG）在商業世界逐漸成為主流議題。企業不再僅僅以財務表現來評估成功，ESG已成為衡量其長期發展潛力的重要標準。然而，當我們把目光轉向香港的公營機構時，情況卻截然不同——ESG披露在這個領域明顯滯後，這難免讓市民對政府的可持續發展承諾產生疑問。
當我們提到ESG披露時，很多人可能會首先聯想到私人企業，因為他們需要吸引投資者、降低融資成本以及提升品牌形象。然而，ESG披露對公營機構的價值同樣顯著。透過ESG披露，公營機構的透明度和問責性能夠提升。ESG披露更能使政策制定更加科學、精準，而這些披露都將有利於公營機構的長遠發展，並增加市民的信任和支持。 舉個例子，英國政府要求所有部門，無論內閣部門或非內閣部門，均需根據「氣候相關財務揭露工作小組」（TCFD）的建議進行強制性氣候相關財務披露。這不僅提升了英國公共部門在應對氣候變化上的透明度，也鼓勵政府部門更加積極地減少碳排放，增強了其在推動可持續發展中的領頭作用。這種做法也讓公眾更清楚地了解政府在可持續發展領域的實際行動，從而提高了政策的接受度和認受性。
再說加拿大，自2008年開始施行《聯邦可持續發展法》（Federal Sustainable Development Act），並推出了《2022-2026聯邦可持續發展策略》（2022-2026 Federal Sustainable Development Strategy），要求所有聯邦機構每三年提交可持續發展戰略計劃，並發佈進度報告。這些報告涵蓋了減少溫室氣體排放、生物多樣性保護等多個目標，並且通過公開的數據披露，促進了政府部門間的合作與協同，確保可持續發展政策能夠有效落實。這種透明的披露機制不僅讓政府能夠更好地管理環境與社會風險，也為政策的制定提供了有力的數據支持。
或許有人會問，公營機構推行ESG披露究竟有什麼實際好處？事實上，ESG披露能夠為公營機構帶來的裨益，不僅僅體現在提升透明度和問責性上，更能夠為政府機構帶來經濟效益。根據最新的研究，企業在披露ESG數據後，通常會享有更高的股票估值和更低的資本成本，這就是所謂的「ESG披露溢價」（ESG Disclosure Premium）。雖然公營機構不像私營企業一樣依賴資本市場，但ESG披露溢價對公營機構的裨益體現在資源管理上，以及能夠降低政府在推行大型基建項目或發行政府債券時的資本成本。
香港金融管理局作為領頭機構，已展示出卓越的ESG管治實踐，就可持續發展相關工作建立了一套健全且具備清晰問責安排與高透明度的可持續發展管治架構。倘若香港政府能夠參考香港金融管理局的做法，並採納國際可持續準則理事會（ISSB）於2023年6月推出的IFRS S1和S2披露標準，這將顯著提高香港在全球市場的競爭力，並吸引更多重視可持續發展的國際資本。IFRS S1標準規範企業如何準備和報告與可持續相關的財務信息，涵蓋各類風險和機會；而IFRS S2則專注於氣候相關風險與機會的披露。當前投資者越來越關注氣候風險和社會責任，政府若能透過這些全球認可的ESG披露標準展示其在這些方面的承諾，將有助於降低募資成本，並吸引更多綠色資金投入到香港的未來發展項目。
筆者建議，政府可以從自願性披露開始，允許公營機構根據自身情況公開環境和社會數據。這一小步將為未來的強制性要求奠定基礎。此外，政府應該制定一個全面的ESG披露指導框架，為公營機構提供具體的披露標準，例如ISSB發布的IFRS S1和S2標準。這些框架應涵蓋如何量化環境影響、社會責任和管治實踐，並確保數據的可比性和可審計性。
正如英國央行前行長馬克．卡尼所指出的，「氣候變化是地平線上的悲劇（Tragedy of the Horizon）。我們不需要一群精算師告訴我們，氣候變化的災難性影響將超越大多數行動者的傳統視野，為未來世代帶來高昂的成本，而當前世代卻沒有直接動機去解決這個問題。」 這
凸顯了當前世代在應對氣候變化問題上的短板，並提醒各方必須採取果斷行動。隨著國家對綠色發展和碳中和戰略的高度重視，香港迎來了國際資本與綠色發展的重要歷史機遇。有見及此，逐步推行公營機構的ESG披露將有助於提升香港的管治水平，並促進更科學、明智的政策制定，從而推動香港在全球可持續發展格局中發揮更大的領頭作用。
本文早前亦於Capital HK 轉載
#本文章由 EFFAS 環境、社會及管治分析師 (CESGA) 所撰寫。CESGA在歐洲以及全球都具有高度認受性，全球報名人數持續上升。有志報讀的人士，請參閱：https://bit.ly/40chuOR
