Opinion

Hong Kong needs to start decarbonising its buildings. Here’s how

The EU’s net-zero plan for buildings is a good model. For a start, Hong Kong needs a mandatory energy label for buildings as a basis, and a combination of information, incentives and regulation to succeed

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A view of buildings in Sham Shui Po last year. In Hong Kong, buildings account for over 60 per cent of carbon emissions, much higher than the global average. Photo: May Tse

Dr Mark Hinnells is a director at Susenco Consulting, based in London and Hong Kong, providing services in government policy, organisational strategy, project development and finance.

Published: 9:30am, 19 May 2024Updated: 12:42pm, 19 May 2024

It has been over five months since more than 110 countries at the Cop28 UN climate change conference agreed to double their energy efficiency improvements to an annual rate of 4 per cent as part of a deal towards meeting the Paris Agreement. What has Hong Kong done since?

In many areas of environmental policy, Hong Kong has followed international practice. It recently adopted a taxonomy for sustainable finance, seeking consistency with guidelines issued by the Chinese government and European Union. This covers lending for building refurbishment and includes standards for listed companies reporting their climate change impact and risks.

Back in 2009, Hong Kong introduced a mandatory energy efficiency labelling scheme for household electrical appliances similar to the EU standard (which I was involved in developing in the early 1990s). The city has a long history of harmonisation on environmental issues. But not yet in buildings. And this is where the urgent action to meet Cop28 targets could be taken.