The availability of climate-related information has become more important as companies move towards managing climate risks and implementing mitigation targets. The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited (“SEHK”) revised its ESG Reporting Guide in 2020 to include climate change related disclosure requirements in alignment with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) recommendations: impactful climate-related issues, targets and action plans on mitigation, and scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Subsequently, the Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group (“CASG”) announced that disclosures aligned with the TCFD recommendations will be mandatory for Hong Kong corporates in relevant sectors. SEHK has recently reviewed the ESG practices under the enhanced requirements, including the climate-related requirements. Together with the new reporting standard to be issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (“ISSB”) in 2023, companies would need to prepare themselves sooner or later on climate disclosure.
With support from HSBC, Business Environment Council (“BEC”) has been running the three-year Carbon Disclosure Programme (“Programme”) since 2022 to assist companies in starting the climate disclosure journey. The Programme also provides a cost-free opportunity for companies that are not familiar with CDP to sign up for the international disclosure system to consolidate and share climate data. As part of the Programme, BEC is organising this event together with CDP and HSBC to:
1. Provide an overview of the current climate disclosure landscape among Hong Kong businesses;
2. Support corporates and SMEs to participate in climate disclosure;
3. Inform the 2023 CDP disclosure cycle and encourage companies to participate.
Speakers
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Mr Zhang Huifeng Mr Zhang Huifeng joined HSBC in 2005. As the Regional Head of Corporate Sustainability Asia Pacific, he oversees the Bank’s sustainability strategy in the region. This include community investment in future skills, climate change, sustainable finance, community service areas. His team is also working closely with the whole sale and retail banking businesses to promote sustainable finance and investment within the Bank to support the development of low carbon economy. Before joining HSBC, Mr Zhang had worked at BNP Paribas and ABN AMRO in trade finance and corporate banking area. His prior experiences also include 7 years project management and consulting for World Bank and Asian Development Bank financed projects in China. Mr Zhang has a MBA degree from Manchester Business School, UK.
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Ms Kelly Lee Ms Kelly Lee joined Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (“HKEX”) in 2013. She works within the Policy and Secretariat Services Unit of the Listing Division and has been involved in HKEX’s major listing policy initiatives in recent years. Prior to joining HKEX, Ms Lee was a senior associate practicing corporate and securities law in Hong Kong. Ms Lee graduated from the University of Hong Kong with two bachelor's degrees in Business Administration (Law) and Laws. She is a qualified lawyer in Hong Kong and in England & Wales.
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Ms Elim Kwok Elim manages CDP’s corporate engagement programmes and projects in the Greater Chain region. She advises high-impact companies on environmental reporting (e.g. TCFD) and works closely with large purchasers and their supply chains to help companies better understand and manage their emissions through using CDP data and disclosure platform. In her role, Elim also works with local authorities, capital markets, corporates and NGOs in Hong Kong and Taiwan with an aim to advance the regional environmental agenda. This is done through providing capacity building and advice driven by international ESG reporting trends and insights. Prior to her current role, she carried out engagement work for key accounts and stakeholders in Southeast Asia, South Korea, and Oceania. Elim is passionate about pursuing a sustainable future through the responsible use of resources and sees environmental disclosure as an essential element to this.
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Mr Herbert Yung Herbert is currently leading the Member Engagement function and driving various internal and external ESG initiatives of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA), including capacity building, stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting as well as de-carbonization strategy. He is also the Chair of the Net-zero Working Group of the Global Accounting Alliance. Prior to HKICPA, Herbert was a Director at Deloitte with about 13 years of advisory experience in enabling companies across industries to resolve business challenges and achieve sustainable growth. He managed various large-scale projects relating to ESG, risk management, internal audit and assurance for multinational corporations and China / Hong Kong listed companies, and has published several thought leadership articles on corporate governance and sustainability. He graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a Master of Arts degree and is a Certified Public Accountant.
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Mr Mark Harper Mr Mark Harper has worked for around 20 years in the field of corporate sustainability. As Group Head of Sustainability at Swire, Mr Harper is responsible for managing the Group Sustainable Development Office, and leading on the design, execution and performance monitoring of global corporate strategy for sustainability for the Swire Group, and acting as the lead change agent in driving improved sustainability performance and best practices, with a view to further embed sustainability into overall business strategy for Swire. Prior to taking up the Group Head of Sustainability role, Mr Harper had worked at John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd. for over six years, where he was responsible for managing the Group’s ESG disclosures as well as advising operating companies on their own ESG submissions. In addition to his work on ESG ratings, Mr Harper was also responsible for advising the Group on policy and strategy development, particularly in the areas of climate resilience, biodiversity and sustainable waste management. He also sits on the Board of Business Environment Council, the Executive Committee of the Drink Without Waste working group, and is Vice Chair of the Environment and Energy Committee of the British Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. Mr Harper has extensive experience of ESG disclosure standards such as GRI and the Hong Kong Exchange ESG Reporting Guide, as well as conducting sector focused benchmarking studies, corporate environmental management, as well as organising hands-on corporate citizenship and CSR training programmes. Before joining John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd., Mr Harper worked in a number of senior management roles at high profile NGOs including the Earthwatch Institute, Fauna & Flora International, China Water Risk, and Business Environment Council, where he was responsible for managing the organisations advisory services on ESG reporting and corporate sustainability strategy development.
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Ms Jessica Chan Jessica is the Head of Sustainability of MTR Corporation responsible for formulating sustainability strategies and driving sustainability initiatives for the company. She developed a corporate Climate Change Strategy and leads regular review of climate risks and controls for different business units. She has formulated a long-term decarbonisation roadmap and carbon reduction targets for MTR, and developed a set of KPIs to gauge and drive the company’s performance in a wide range of sustainability aspects. Jessica is a seasoned sustainability professional with over 25 years of experience in environmental and corporate sustainability with diverse expertise in sustainability strategies and policies, sustainability communications and disclosure, regulatory compliance, stakeholder engagement, and emerging sustainability issues. She is a member of various international and local sustainability-related committees including UITP’s Sustainable Development Committee, HKGCC’s Environment & Sustainability Committee and BEC’s Climate Change Business Forum Advisory Group. Jessica is also a member of the Board of Examiners of HKMA’s Hong Kong Sustainability Award.
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Ir Jasper Chan Jasper Chan is the Senior ESG Manager at The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited. He joined Towngas over 10 years ago and is now a Section Head within the Corporate ESG Department. He focuses on formulating and driving the Group's overall ESG strategy. He is also responsible for the decarbonisation journey of the Group and manages climate-related risks and opportunities to ensure the Group’s smooth energy transition towards a low carbon future. Jasper is a Chartered Engineer in both HK and the UK, and Professional Member of The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, The Energy Institute, The Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers. He is currently serving the BEC Sustainable Living Environment Advisory Group as a Steering Committee member.
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Ms Carrie Ng Carrie is the Head of Sustainable Finance for HSBC Hong Kong Commercial Banking where she is responsible for driving the ESG agenda in the business. She is also a member of the Hong Kong Green Finance Association Green and Sustainable Banking Working Group as well as Hong Kong Association of Banks Green Commercial Banking Committee. Prior to this, Carrie was Head of Commercial Banking in Guernsey for HSBC where, in addition to running the commercial banking business, she led the launch of the Sustainable Finance Proposition for the bank in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man and sat on various government and industry green strategy groups. Carrie has also worked in multiple cities in Asia and Europe managing corporates of various sizes and leading transformation programmes for HSBC in her career. Carrie is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion as well as international trade, having spoken at forums such as the UK All-Party Parliamentary Groups Roundtable to advise UK MPs. She was named one of the Top 50 Ethnic Minority Future Leaders by EMPower and Yahoo Finance in 2019.
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Mr Andy Law Andy is a Associate Director of PwC Hong Kong overseeing the Climate and Sustainability practice in Hong Kong. He has more than 10 years of sustainability, ESG, assurance and business consulting experience. His primary focus in sustainability is understanding indexes and frameworks such as CDP, HKQAA, DJSI, GRESB, EcoVadis, Science Based Targets, GRI and others. He has led projects to improve client ratings and been involved in a PwC special project on DJSI scoring methodologies. He advised corporations on responding to investor requests to upgrade sustainability index scores, e.g. successfully advancinga key client to second top rating on first submission. Andy is experienced in helping different industry clients, including real estate, consumer markets and industrial products manufacturing to adopt reporting frameworks such as Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI), United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the ESG Guide issued by the HKEx. Andy is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
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Mr Merlin Lao Mr Merlin Lao is Head of Policy & Research at BEC. He leads the team to share develop clear policy positions on pressing climate and environmental topics in Hong Kong, through undertaking research on latest domestic and international trends, engaging with the Hong Kong SAR Government and connecting insights of the local business sector.
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Mr Rafi Cristobal Rafi, Director of the Social Impact and Sustainability Program (SISP) in The Harbour School (THS), aspires that his passion in leading a long-term school-wide movement and program on sustainability education and operation, would give insight and inspiration to the other educators that an action-oriented plan for social impact and sustainability in a school set-up is feasible and can bring about meaningful change. Since the launch of THS SISP in August 2021, Rafi spearheaded and created the organisation’s first Sustainability Report (Education for Sustainable Development Report) for 2021/22, which is GRI-referenced and prepared by internal members from scratch. Rafi also led THS to exhibit in ReThink HK 2022, the city’s most ambitious event for sustainable development, to advocate sustainability in the K-12 education sector. THS SISP was recognised and won 3 major awards under the UN SDG Achievement Awards 2022 amongst other established corporations. These include Project Award - Silver, Project Award - Best Approach and Project Award - High Replicability. Rafi continues his passion to share his experience with other education institutions in Hong Kong and overseas such as in Singapore and Malaysia. He has been appointed as one of the speakers in the Asia-Pacific International Schools Conference covering ESG for schools.
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Dr Tony Ip Dr Tony Ip is a community-centric, sustainable design architect and urban designer. He has 20 years of architectural, engineering and urban design experience. His passion and contributions to green architecture have been recognized by receiving HKSAR Medal of Honour in 2022, Australia China Alumni Award for Arts and Creative Industries in 2018, Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award in 2016, EcoStar Award in 2014 and HKIA Young Architect Award in 2010.
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Programme
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Time |
Session |
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14:10 – 14:15 |
Opening Remarks Mr Zhang Huifeng, Head of Corporate Sustainability Asia Pacific, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited |
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14:15 – 14:25 |
BEC Net-zero Carbon Charter and Carbon Disclosure Programme Mr Merlin Lao, Head of Policy & Research, Business Environment Council |
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Part 1: Disclosure Landscape |
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14:25 – 14:40 |
Review and Outlook for Climate-related Disclosure of Listed Companies in Hong Kong Ms Kelly Lee, Senior Vice President, Policy and Secretariat Services, Listing Division, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited |
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14:40 – 14:55 |
Together towards net zero: CDP climate data analysis 2022 Ms Elim Kwok, Corporate Engagement Manager, CDP |
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14:55 – 15:30 |
Panel Discussion: Corporate CDP Experience and Supply Chain Engagement Panellists: Mr Mark Harper, Group Head of Sustainability, John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd. Ms Jessica Chan, Head of Sustainability, MTR Corporation Limited Ir Jasper Chan, Senior ESG Manager, The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited Moderator: Mr Herbert Yung, Director of Member Engagement and Sustainability Lead, Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants |
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15:30 – 15:50 |
Coffee break |
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Part 2: Engaging SMEs to Drive Value Chain Mitigation |
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15:50 – 16:05 |
Supporting SMEs to Communicate and Achieve Climate Ambition Ms Carrie Ng, Head of Sustainable Finance, Commercial Banking, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited |
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16:05 – 16:20 |
Brief Walkthrough of the CDP Climate Change Questionnaire Mr Andy Law, Associate Director of ESG Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers Limited |
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16:20 – 16:55 |
Panel Discussion: Motivation and Approach on Climate Disclosure Panellists: Ms Carrie Ng, Head of Sustainable Finance, Commercial Banking, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited Mr Rafi Cristobal, Director of Social Impact & Sustainability, The Harbour School Limited Dr Tony Ip, Tony Ip Green Architects Ltd. Moderator: Mr Merlin Lao, Head of Policy & Research, Business Environment Council |
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16:55 – 17:00 |
Closing Remarks |
There are limited seats for on-site participation. Successful registrants will be notified separately.
