Opportunities and Headwinds for Hong Kong’s Voluntary Carbon Market

Rocky Tung

Director & Head of Policy Research

Financial Services Development Council

Dr Tung is the Director & Head of Policy Research for the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC). He leads the team responsible for conducting policy research and industry surveys for the formulation of proposals to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and financial regulators. Prior to joining the FSDC, Dr Tung was the Director of Capital Markets Policy for CFA Institute, covering research areas related to capital market structures (e.g. corporate governance, regulatory environment) in the Asia Pacific region. Before that, he was the Senior Economist for the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, where he oversaw its macroeconomic research, as well as labour- and international trade-related policy research functions. He also served as an economist and a research analyst for banks, a trade credit insurer and a Hong Kong-based think-tank. Dr Tung holds a doctoral degree in organisational leadership from Northeastern University in Boston. He received a Master’s degree and a Bachelor’s degree, both in Economics, from the University of Hong Kong and the University of Wisconsin – Madison, respectively. In his personal capacity, Dr Tung sits on the Citizens Advisory Committee on Community Relations of the Independent Commission Against Corruption and is the Convenor of its Media Publicity and Community Research Sub-Committee. He also sits on the Editorial Board of FinanceAsia.

Ken Chiu

Head of Carbon & ESG Product

HKEX

Ken Chiu serves as Head of Carbon & ESG Products at HKEX since 2022, responsible for fostering the Carbon & ESG product businesses for the exchange. He recently has led the team to successfully establish and launch the first brand new voluntary carbon marketplace at HKEX. Mr Chiu has more than 15 years of experience in the industry. He has worked in various functional areas including structuring and marketing positions in global markets of investment banks in both Hong Kong SAR and Mainland China. He has also been actively engaging in RMB internationalisation and cross-border business activities since 2009. Mr Chiu joined HKEX in 2018. Prior to his current role, Mr. Chiu was Senior Vice President of Fixed Income and Currency (FIC) Development responsible for FIC derivative and bond listing businesses at HKEX. He holds an MSc in Mathematics for Finance and Actuarial Science from the Université Paris-Dauphine and a BBA in Finance from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Charles Bedford

Chief Impact Officer and Founder

CGP

Charles Bedford is Chief Impact Officer and Founder at Carbon Growth Partners (CGP), a leading global investment manager in carbon finance. He’s also a Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prior to CGP, he served as Regional Managing Director for The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) Asia Pacific Region. Based in Hong Kong, Charles worked closely with TNC leaders across Asia, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Australia to advance climate, marine, freshwater and land conservation projects. He also focused on building the capacity amongst the region’s business and government leadership to address complicated conservation problems that affect people, nature and the climate. Prior to joining TNC, Charles served as director of the Colorado State Land Board, overseer of 3 million hectares of state lands, was Legal Counsel to Colorado Governor Roy Romer and practiced law with the firm of Kutak Rock. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and holds a JD from the University of Colorado School of Law. He is the author of journal articles, opinion pieces and a book on land tenure and conservation.

Christine Loh

Chief Development Strategist, Institute for the Environment

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Christine Loh is the Chief Development Strategist at the Institute for the Environment, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Loh was the Undersecretary for the Environment in the HKSAR Government (2012-17). Between April 2019 and March 2020, she was the Special Consultant to the Office of the Chief Executive of the HKSAR Government on the ecological civilization aspects of the Greater Bay Area Outline Development Plan. She has a long history in public policy and politics, having been a legislator, and then was the CEO of a non-profit public policy think tank. Loh is Visiting Scholar at Anderson School of Management, University of California at Los Angeles, and taught a course there on nonmarket risks for five years. She has a wide and unusual range of expertise that spans the environment, energy, development, politics, and US-China relations. She is a published author of many academic and popular works. Her latest book, published by Hong Kong University Press in 2023, is about COVID-19 and its socio-economic and policy implications. Loh is a Director and Trustee of CDP Worldwide, and Director of the Global Maritime Forum, New Forests Pty Ltd, and Towngas Smart Energy Company Limited. She is also a member of BASF’s Stakeholder Advisory Council in Germany. She is a lawyer by training, and a commodities trader by profession.

Tasos Zavitsanakis

Head of Sustainable Finance Greater China

UBS APAC Sustainable Finance Office

Tasos is Head of Sustainable Finance for Greater China within the APAC Sustainable Finance Office where he is responsible for driving Sustainable Finance business initiatives. His focus is on client and regulatory engagement, thought leadership development, capacity building, and forging strategic partnerships in the sustainability ecosystem. Tasos specializes in Decarbonisation strategies supporting clients in formulating Credible and Just Transition Plans and Impact towards Net Zero. In addition, he leads UBS’s global Carbon working group and has represented UBS in the global industry Taskforce for Voluntary Carbon Offset Markets and developing UBS’s Carbonplace infrastructure. Tasos supports UBS’s Sustainability and Impact Institute contributing in thought leadership and has co-authored “The Green Inflection Point, driving decarbonization of the real economy” and the “Voluntary Carbon Market Primer”. Tasos regularly advises regulators and exchanges in APAC to develop the Sustainability Finance agenda including Climate and Risk Management Frameworks, Disclosures, Taxonomies and Carbon market development and is regularly called upon to represent the firm in sustainability conferences. He also represents UBS as a co-chair of HKMA’s Capacity Building Cross Agency Steering Group.

Pubudu Abayasiri

Director – Digital Services

CLP

Pubs Abayasiri has worked in the technology and energy sector for over 20 years. During that time, he worked in consulting and held positions in various industries. Within CLP, Pubs leads the products team where the mission is to deliver the right digital innovations for CLP customers to support their decarbonisation.

Sam Li

Vice President, Head of Research and Analytics, STCF, East Asia

SMBC

Sam is a seasoned commodity banker with over 15 years’ of experience in various international banks such as Standard Chartered, United Overseas Bank, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Sam is the champion within the bank to promote sustainability, particularly around trade finance. Combined with his wealth of banking and structuring experience in commodity finance, he advises clients on opportunities such as transition financing, sustainability-linked loans, green deposits and carbon credits. In addition, Sam has extensively worked with the Sustainable Trade Finance Working Group in the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Hong Kong Green Finance Association to contribute advice. Sam holds a Juris Doctor in Law from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and obtained the certificate from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge (CISL).

Jessica Ha

Associate and Founding Member

Ben McQuhae & Co

Jessica is an Associate and Founding Member of Ben McQuhae & Co, a Hong Kong based law firm uniquely committed to supporting the sustainability transition and a winner of the INSEAD Business as a Force for Good award. With a background in sustainability and law, Jessica advises clients on a wide range of legal and technical matters relating to sustainability and ESG. Jessica is experienced in a wide range of sustainability and ESG-related matters, including carbon markets, impact investing, circular economy, ESG and decarbonization. Jessica has worked on pioneering projects in carbon markets, including the design and development of new marketplaces, exchanges, trading platforms and distribution channels, as well as digital products, MRV and distribution solutions. She has also co-written a number of thought pieces on carbon markets and carbon credits.

William Yu

Founder and Chief Executive Officer

World Green Organisation

Dr. William Yu is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of World Green Organisation. He is an energy economist and climate professional by training and completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He earned an Executive MBA from the Thunderbird Global Management School, U.S.. Dr. Yu also completed a Sustainable Finance Programme at Cambridge and Impact Measurement and Management for the UN SDGs at Duke. Dr. Yu is ESBN Task Force Member, The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations and the Vice-Chair of Asia Pacific Business Forum (APBF) of the United Nations ESBN 2022. He is also the subcommittee in Advisory Council on the Environment (ACE), Environment and Ecology Bureau and other committee members in different civil services and organizations. Dr. Yu is also Advisor on Certified ESG Planner (CEP) qualification and Certified China Carbon Trader of Shanghai Environment Energy Exchange, advises investment banks and several public accounting firms on Forestry Carbon Credit Projects, Valuation of Carbon Assets and Carbon Trading.

Vicky Cheng

Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs, APAC

Bloomberg LP

Vicky Cheng is Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs Asia Pacific, overseeing government relations and regulatory developments impacting Bloomberg and its clients in the region.

Before joining Bloomberg, Vicky worked in both the public and private sectors. Her focus has been policy and regulatory development, advising senior management on related requirements and implementations. Vicky drove advocacy and public affairs programmes for various organizations including global corporates and financial institutions. During her time with an international law firm, Vicky led business development and thought leadership strategies for the Financial Services Regulatory and Dispute Resolution practices. She began her career with a Government providing policy analysis and communications.

Wayne Curry

Head of Enterprise Sales, Hong Kong, South Korea & Taiwan

Bloomberg L.P.

Wayne Curry is head of Hong Kong, Taiwan & Korean enterprise sales at Bloomberg LP., the global business, financial information and news leader. Based in Hong Kong, Mr. Curry oversees regional strategy for Bloomberg’s financial products including the Bloomberg Professional service, the world's most trusted source of financial data, news and analytics. He leads a team that serves the financial information needs of leading corporations, regional banks, fund managers and the financial services industry. Mr. Curry has market expertise in foreign exchange, equities, fixed income, commodities and emerging/frontier markets. He joined Bloomberg in 2010 where he worked across a number of the firm’s offices including New York, Australia and Hong Kong, overseeing sales strategies & teams for buy-side, sell-side and corporations. He most recently led Bloomberg’s APAC corporations and commodities strategy. Mr. Curry received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics & History from the Maxwell School of Public Policy at Syracuse University.

Lucita Ng

Commodities and Carbon Market Specialist

Bloomberg

Lucita is an account manager focusing on the commodities business in Hong Kong, providing solutions to corporations and trading houses. She is a certified Energy Risk Professional, and is working towards a Master of Social Science in Sustainability Leadership and Governance.