Bank of China (Hong Kong) and WWF brought more than 200 policymakers, investors, academics and financial-industry leaders together at Hong Kong Green Week 2026 to examine how sustainable finance can accelerate Southeast Asia’s low-carbon transition. The forum highlighted Hong Kong’s emerging role as a bridge between Mainland Chinese capital, international investors and green projects across ASEAN markets.
Green finance in Asia is entering a phase where the challenge is no longer simply developing sustainable financial products, but connecting capital, projects and standards across increasingly integrated regional markets.
That was the central theme of the BOCHK Green Forum 2026 & Sharing Workshop on Good Practices of Green Finance in Southeast Asia, jointly organized by Bank of China (Hong Kong) and WWF on September 8.
Held as part of Hong Kong Green Week 2026, the event brought together more than 200 policymakers, international organizations, financial institutions, academics and industry executives from across the Asia-Pacific region.
The forum focused on green-finance innovation, low-carbon transition, climate resilience and sustainable development, while placing particular emphasis on cooperation between Mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
That regional focus reflects the growing importance of cross-border financial infrastructure in funding the energy transition.
Hong Kong already occupies a significant position in Asia’s sustainable-finance market. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority reported that US$37.7 billion of international green and sustainable bonds were arranged in Hong Kong in 2025, giving the city a 40% share of the regional market and making it Asia’s largest arranging hub for the eighth consecutive year. Total green and sustainable debt issued in Hong Kong, including loans, reached US$76.5 billion.
The forum therefore comes at a time when Hong Kong is attempting to leverage that capital-markets infrastructure beyond its domestic market.
Bank of China (Hong Kong) said its network across nine ASEAN countries allows it to connect regional green projects with international capital. That positioning is important because Southeast Asia’s financing requirements extend well beyond individual national markets.
The Asian Development Bank estimates that the ASEAN+3 sustainable bond market reached US$1.02 trillion at the end of the first quarter of 2026, representing 18% of the global sustainable bond market.
ADB has also been developing mechanisms to bring more private capital into Southeast Asian climate and infrastructure projects. Its ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility has mobilized $1.5 billion in investment into 11 projects worth $5.4 billion between 2018 and 2025, while those projects attracted another $1.3 billion in private-sector investment.
That illustrates the scale of the opportunity—and the financing gap.
Sustainable finance requires more than banks willing to label loans or bonds as green. Investors need credible project pipelines, common standards, measurable environmental outcomes, transition plans and reliable sustainability data.
This was one of the themes running through the BOCHK forum.
Two research reports were launched at the event. The first, “The Asian Way: Sustainable Finance Market Outlook in Southeast Asia and the Role of Hong Kong,” was jointly produced by the Hong Kong Financial Research Institute of Bank of China, MSCI Institute and HKU Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute.
The report examines sustainable-finance development across Southeast Asia and the Greater Bay Area, with a focus on Hong Kong’s potential role in regional green-finance markets.
The second study, “Hong Kong Climate Awareness: Public Understanding, Risk Perception and Readiness for a Low-Carbon Future,” was produced by BOCHK and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Its focus shifts from institutional finance to individuals, examining public understanding of climate change, risk perceptions and preferences for green financial products.
That distinction is increasingly important.
Green finance is often discussed through the lens of institutional capital—bonds, loans, infrastructure funds and project finance. But retail investors and consumers are also becoming part of the sustainable-finance ecosystem through deposits, investment products, insurance and other financial services.
The forum’s theme, “Together for Green: Empowering Corporates and Individuals across Hong Kong and Southeast Asia,” reflects that broader approach.
The event also included a workshop in which banks from Southeast Asia presented green-finance case studies, followed by discussions involving China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Asian Development Bank and academic institutions.
For financial institutions, such collaboration has a practical purpose.
Different jurisdictions use different taxonomies, disclosure rules, financing structures and definitions of sustainable activities. Cross-border investors therefore face additional diligence and comparability challenges when deploying capital into regional projects.
Greater alignment can reduce some of those barriers.
A related example comes from the Greater Bay Area, where efforts to align green standards across Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao are intended to facilitate mutual recognition of qualifying green projects and connect Mainland opportunities with international capital markets.
This is where Hong Kong’s role as an international financial center becomes strategically relevant.
The city can potentially serve as an interface between Asian project developers and international investors that require familiar capital-markets structures, disclosure practices and risk-management frameworks.
But capital availability alone will not guarantee a successful green transition.
The forum also highlighted nature finance and the need to direct capital toward conservation and landscape-level projects. WWF’s Asia-Pacific sustainable-finance leadership emphasized that economies depend heavily on natural systems and that private capital will be necessary to close the nature-finance gap.
That broadens the sustainable-finance discussion beyond carbon.
Financial institutions increasingly need to consider biodiversity, water, land use, climate adaptation and broader nature-related risks alongside emissions. These risks can eventually affect asset values, insurance costs, supply chains and credit quality.
The implications for banks are significant.
A sustainable-finance strategy increasingly requires capabilities in data, risk analytics, project assessment, climate modeling, disclosure and impact measurement. Financial technology can play an important role by improving the collection and analysis of environmental information and helping institutions integrate sustainability variables into underwriting and investment decisions.
MSCI’s participation in the forum underscores that connection. Institutional investors increasingly need data and risk models that allow them to distinguish between companies with credible transition strategies and those relying primarily on sustainability claims.
For GlobalFinTechEdge, the BOCHK event is therefore more than a sustainability conference.
It illustrates how financial infrastructure is being reorganized around a regional transition in which capital markets, banking technology, ESG data, climate risk and cross-border investment increasingly intersect.
Hong Kong’s opportunity is to become a connector within that system.
If regional standards become more interoperable, project pipelines become more investable and sustainability data becomes more comparable, financial institutions could channel significantly more private capital into Southeast Asian transition projects.
The next phase of Asian green finance will depend less on isolated green products and more on whether financial markets can make sustainable investment scalable, measurable and cross-border.
Market Landscape
Asia’s sustainable-finance market has reached substantial scale. ADB reported that ASEAN+3 sustainable bonds outstanding reached US$1.02 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, while ASEAN+3 represented 18% of the global sustainable-bond market.
Hong Kong has established a particularly strong position as an arranging center. HKMA data shows US$37.7 billion of international green and sustainable bonds were arranged in Hong Kong in 2025, representing 40% of Asia’s regional issuance.
The emerging opportunity is to connect that capital-markets expertise with Southeast Asia’s infrastructure and transition-finance needs.
That will require cross-border standards, credible sustainability data, transition-finance frameworks, blended finance and digital infrastructure capable of tracking environmental outcomes.
Top Insights
- BOCHK and WWF are using Hong Kong Green Week to strengthen cooperation between Mainland China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asian green-finance markets.
- Hong Kong arranged US$37.7 billion of international green and sustainable bonds in 2025, accounting for 40% of Asia’s regional market.
- ASEAN+3 sustainable bonds reached US$1.02 trillion at the end of Q1 2026, underscoring the scale of Asia’s sustainable-capital ecosystem.
- New research presented at the forum examines both Southeast Asian sustainable-finance markets and Hong Kong residents’ readiness for green financial products.
- The next stage of green finance will increasingly depend on cross-border standards, ESG data, climate-risk analytics and mechanisms that mobilize private capital.
Get in touch with our fintech expert
