Business sector should join the battle against climate change

Wong Kam-sing Christiana Figueres

The Hong Kong gover nment reiterates its strong supp or t for the Paris Agreement in the fight against climate change, and called for active engagement from the business sector.

Speaking at a Plenary Session on Climate Change and Sustainable Development at the World Sustainable Built Environment Conference 2017 Hong Kong, Wong Kamsing, S ecretar y for the Environment, Government of the HKSAR drew the audience’s attention to the warm and humid weather in June in Hong Kong.

He stressed the urgency for being part of the battle against climate change, which would bring harmful impact to public health, and even of a matter of life and death.

“To respond to climate change is not only about decarbonization, it is also about how to make our built environment more climate a d apt i ve an d re s i l i e nt , b ot h i n terms of hardware and software,” Panel discussion on climate change and sustainable development led by UN Environment

Wong said.

“The Paris Agreement is good for Hong Kong and good for other cities. It would make our city great again - happier, healthier and economically better,” Wong concluded.

Hong Kong joined the world in reiterating its commitment to the Paris Agreement after the US government announced on June 1 that the country was to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement.

Christiana Figueres, Vice-chair of Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energ y and the main negotiator behind the formation of Paris Agreement, said the withdrawal of the US government in the climate accord would have a limited impact on US as a country in driving sustainability forward.

She stressed that the US federal government was part of an ecosystem that involved stakeholders including state governments, the corporate and the civil society, and

the whole process would not be halted by the federal government’s exit as it was seldom at the “engine room” among all parties to move forward.

“There’s always someone who’s not perfectly aligned. That does not mean that country is not moving forward. It just means they are not moving forward as efficiently as they otherwise could,” Figueres said.

In the changing world, Hong Kong government reiterated its alignment with the central government’s position to remain supportive of the Paris Agreement.

Eyeing business opportunities in sustainable development, the private sector was willing to play an active role in the “engine room”.

The long-term profitability, the market readiness and corporate s o cial re sp onsibi lity we re dr iv - ing the business sector to act, said Roland Hunziker, Director of Sustainable Buildings and Cities at Geneva-based organization The World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

“The business knows that we need to act, but they also need a clear signal that we are going into this direction. The Paris Agreement was a very clear signal, but I think it really needs to be translated down to the national and local levels to make sure we sing the same song,” Hunziker said.

For those in the business sectors who are not acting fast enough, Christine Loh, Under Secretary for the Environment, Government of the HKSAR reminded that stronger practices such as the revision of laws would be possible to engage them in reacting to the impact of climate change.

“People do know that the government can change the law. We need to tell them we are going to do that,” Loh said, urging the business sector and the public to join hands in fighting climate change.

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