Hong Kong may also help Asia fill a staggering climate-financing hole by serving to to faucet a worldwide pool of greater than US$200 trillion to fund sustainable-infrastructure tasks, in accordance with the Asian Infrastructure Funding Financial institution (AIIB).
There was a obvious disconnect between the huge quantity of accessible capital and the low deployment of funds for local weather motion within the Asia-Pacific area, mentioned Lim Kim-see, the financial institution’s chief funding officer for public sector and funds shoppers, in an interview.
“We actually want the non-public sector to return into financing, as a result of governments world wide lack fiscal capability to fulfill the huge quantity of funding wanted to realize the nationally decided contributions,” she mentioned.
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World property below administration with institutional buyers similar to pension funds, sovereign funds, private-equity funds and monetary establishments exceeded US$200 trillion, Lim added.
The area wants funding of a minimum of US$1.1 trillion a 12 months to fulfill mitigation and adaptation wants, however precise funding is falling brief by about US$800 billion, in accordance with the Worldwide Finance Corp (IFC).
That mentioned, international buyers are starting to extend their allocations to the area.
Within the first half of the 12 months, about six share factors of worldwide local weather funding shifted to the area, marking the primary notable reallocation of climate-themed capital in direction of Asia in additional than seven years, in accordance with a report from Financial institution of China (Hong Kong) and MSCI.
Since 2015, greater than US$300 billion in labelled sustainable bonds had been issued throughout Southeast Asia and the Higher Bay Space, reflecting the fast maturing of the area’s sustainable-finance market, the report mentioned.
Lim Kim-see, chief funding officer of the Asian Infrastructure Funding Financial institution, pictured at 4 Seasons Resort in Central on September 12, 2025. Photograph: Edmond So alt=Lim Kim-see, chief funding officer of the Asian Infrastructure Funding Financial institution, pictured at 4 Seasons Resort in Central on September 12, 2025. Photograph: Edmond So>
Nevertheless, institutional buyers holding huge capital, largely in North America and Europe, had been “looking for what’s perceived to be safer investments”, Lim mentioned. Blended finance – combining capital with completely different ranges of threat – might “appeal to these buyers and provides them the consolation to return and spend money on the high-risk property in rising markets”.
