More help is needed across various industries and stakeholders in order to achieve ambitions in sustainability, according to UBS’ Hong Kong chief executive Amy Lo, underlining that the financial sector alone cannot carry the burden.
Over the past several years, sustainability has been mainstreamed in the financial sector and the trend has been further accelerated in the midst of the pandemic.
But despite growing adoption in finance, industry leaders stress that more contributions are required elsewhere to achieve the real ambitions in climate change and other environmental and social issues.
«As the sustainable finance market is starting to mature […] financial institutions have to step up their game,» said UBS’ Hong Kong CEO and APAC co-head of wealth management Amy Lo in a panel at this week’s Asian Financial Forum 2022. «But the financial sector cannot singlehandedly change the world.»
Talent Pool
One particular area that Lo highlighted was the need to further develop the talent pool for ESG-related roles.
To that end, UBS is co-charing a cross-agency workgroup that involves collaboration with businesses and academia to grow the ESG-related talent pool in Hong Kong.
Intra-Government Collaboration
While various governments are individually making efforts to support their own sustainability agendas, panel members also underlined the need for cooperation between governments, especially with regards to standardization.
Issues highlighted in include the need to make relevant changes in standards for accounting as well as information disclosures.
«It’s really about partnerships,» said State Street’s chief productivity officer and head of international business Andrew Erickson. «It’s come down to how we have to execute together because unilateral decisions – whether it be from policymakers, individual corporations or individuals investors – is not going to make the transition required to really make a material impact in the future.»
finews.asia is an official media partner of the Asian Financial Forum 2022.
