On 4 December 2018, Carbon Care Asia (CCA) and CarbonCare Innolab (CCIL) jointly organised their annual flagship event in the Owner Box, Happy Valley Racecourse. Themed “Accelerating Green Finance in Asia: Investing in a +1.5 Degrees World”, the morning session of the Conference included two panel discussions on “Gaps & opportunities for green Investments in a +1.5 degrees world” and “How to accelerate green finance developments?” Local and overseas experts on climate policy and financial investment were invited to share their observations and experiences, as well as to interact and exchange ideas with representatives of the finance sector, business sector and civil society. Participants were able to gain important insights into the topics discussed.

Speakers and panelists of 2018 CarbonCare^® Conference included:

Mr Yossef Zahar, Senior Climate Finance Advisor for UNFCCC

Mr Jean-Marc Champagne, Head of Environmental Finance, WWF-Hong Kong

Dr Peter Hefele, Director, Regional Project Energy Security and Climate Change Asia-Pacific (RECAP), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung

Mr Anthony Cheung, Managing Director, Head of ESG and Sustainable Investing, Hamon Asset Management

Mr Benjamin Weller, Vice President, Deutsche Bank AG, Capital Solutions & Sustainable Financing

Mr Johnnie Yung, Head of Portfolio Strategists, State Street Global Advisors

Ms Elaine Hung, Executive Director, ICBC International Asset Management

Mr Andrew Kam, National Director, Corporate Appraisal & Advisory, JLL

Mr Stefan Schratz, Director, Head of German, Swiss & Austrian Clients Asia, ING Bank N.V.

Graced by the presence of the officiating guest, Ambassador Carmen Cano, Head of EU Office to Hong Kong and Macao, this year’s CarbonCare^® Label Award Ceremony was held in the afternoon. In her keynote speech entitled “New trends for Green Finance in EU: moving in tandem with Asia”, Ambassador Cano encouraged Hong Kong to promote green finance by leveraging on its prime position as an international financial centre. This year, a total of 47 organisations received the CarbonCare^® Label, the CarbonCare^® ESG Label and the CarbonCare^® Star Label, showcasing increasing awareness and actions of carbon management and sustainable development among companies and organisations of different sectors.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of CCA. Company board members and the management team took the opportunity to thank business partners, clients and friends for their continuous support. Ir Albert Lai, Chief Executive Officer of CCA, also announced the cooperation with Prosage Sustainability Development Limited to launch an online learning platform early next year to promote the digital learning of sustainability issues.

The last session of the event saw three parallel workshops focusing on “Identifying Critical Factors for Successful Green Bond Issues”, “Green and Social – Building Sustainability into Green Finance” and “Sustainability Reporting – from Compliance to Enhancement”. Workshop participants from various backgrounds benefited from deep-dive discussions and the exchange of views and experiences on respective subjects. The full-day event drew around 170 industry practitioners and company representatives.

Conference Programme and Speakers Profile

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

Photo captions:

1. Representatives of CarbonCare^® Label 2018 awardee organisations pictured with officiating guest Ambassador Carmen Cano (middle) and CCA, CCIL management team.
2. Officiating guest of the Award Ceremony, Ambassador Carmen Cano, Head of EU Office to Hong Kong and Macao, delivered a keynote speech on “New trends for Green Finance in EU: moving in tandem with Asia”.
3. Ir Albert Lai, Chief Executive Officer of CCA, gave the welcoming speech.
4. In his opening speech, Mr Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, GBS, JP, Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, emphasized the need for organisations to increase funding to address climate change.
5. Mr John Sayer, Research Director of CCIL and Director of CCA, announced the key findings of “Paris Watch — Hong Kong Climate Action Report.”
6. The seminar on accelerating green finance development in Asia saw a strong turnout of over 120 industry practitioners and company representatives.
7. Moderated by Ir Albert Lai, Chief Executive Officer of CCA (1^st left), the first panel featured specialists from different sectors sharing their observations and experience regarding the “Gaps & opportunities for green investments in a +1.5 degrees world”. The panelists pointed out that climate risk has become the greatest financial risk nowadays. Referring to overseas examples, the panelists called on the Hong Kong Government to establish a special authority dedicated to the acceleration of local green finance.
8. Host Ir Albert Lai presented the CCA 10^th anniversary special souvenir to panelists of Session One — Mr Yossef Zahar, Senior Climate Finance Advisor for UNFCCC (2^nd left), Mr Jean-Marc Champagne, Head of Environmental Finance, WWF-Hong Kong (3^rd left), Dr Peter Hefele, Director, Regional Project Energy Security and Climate Change Asia-Pacific (RECAP), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (3^rd right) and Mr Anthony Cheung, Managing Director, Head of ESG and Sustainable Investing, Hamon Asset Management (1^st right).
9. The second panel discussion, which focused on “How to accelerate green finance developments?”, was moderated by Mr Water Cheung(1^st left), Chairman of Carbon Care Asia Pte Ltd and Senior Partner and CEO, Asia Pacific at StormHarbour Securities. Panelists suggested that while investors are generally interested in green investment products, the market needs a set of uniform standards to define what is “green”.
10. Host Mr Water Cheung presented the CCA 10^th anniversary special souvenir to panelists of Session Two — Mr Benjamin Weller, Vice President, Deutsche Bank AG, Capital Solutions & Sustainable Financing (2^nd left); Mr Johnnie Yung, Head of Portfolio Strategists (Asia ex-Japan region), State Street Global Advisors (3^rd left); Ms Elaine Hung, Executive Director, ICBC International Asset Management (3^rd right); Mr Andrew Kam, National Director, Corporate Appraisal & Advisory, JLL (2^nd right) and Mr Stefan Schratz, Director, Head of German, Swiss & Austrian Clients Asia, ING Bank N.V.(1^st right).
11. CCA Chairman Mr Chong Chan Yau and CEO Ir Albert Lai looked back at the various development milestones of the company in the last ten years.
12. The CCA board of directors made a toast on stage to celebrate 10^th anniversary of the founding of the Company and thanked business partners, clients and friends for their support.
13. Mr Jack Liu, CEO of Retech Group, introduced the online sustainability training platform to be launched in partnership with Carbon Care Asia.
14. Ir Lee Chi Ming, Chairman of CCIL, announced that three categories of CarbonCare^® Labels were awarded to 47 companies and organisations in 2018.
15. Ir Lee Chi Ming, Chairman of CCIL, presented a carbon offset certificate to Ambassador Carmen Cano as a souvenir.
16. Mr Water Cheung, Chairman of Carbon Care Asia Pte Ltd and Senior Partner and CEO, Asia Pacific at StormHarbour Securities (middle, front row) and Ms Lan Xing, Associate Director (Sustainable Finance) of CCA (3^rd left, last row) shared their experience in the issuance of green bonds with workshop participants.
17. CCA Director Mr John Sayer (6^th left) and Sustainability Consultant Dr Lindsay Mak (2^nd right) hosted a workshop to explore the blending of sustainability with green finance.
18. CCA Principal Sustainability Consultant Ms Edith Yiu (4^th left, last row) and Senior Sustainability Consultant Ms Bonnie Yip (1^st left, last row) organised an interactive workshop to help company representatives understand the ways to enhance sustainability reporting.

 

 

Hong Kong Economic Journal CarbonCare® Conference 2018: Asian Green Finance Development Special Supplement“Acceleration of Green Finance needed as Climate Change impact becomes more severe”published on 12/12/2018(By courtesy of Hong Kong Economic Journal) Download full copy (Chinese Version Only)