Xu Zhengyu: The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is closely collaborating with the carbon exchange in the Greater Bay Area, actively exploring and experimenting with cross-border carbon trading settlement paths.

On March 18th, Christopher Hui Ching-yu, the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury of Hong Kong, replied to questions from legislator Yeung Sum during a Legislative Council meeting that the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is currently collaborating closely with the carbon exchange in the Greater Bay Area, actively exploring and testing cross-border carbon trading settlement pathways. It is hoped that a pilot project will be completed by 2026, and experiences will be summarized to provide references for future cross-border carbon trading work in the country. As of March 2026, Core Climate has traded over 1 million tons of carbon credits, with over 130 registered participants. The projects and types of carbon credits traded through Core Climate are diverse, with a wide range of prices. Notably, major corporations such as CATHAY PAC AIR settled 50,000 tons of voluntary carbon credits through the Core Climate platform in December 2024, demonstrating how Core Climate successfully assists companies in achieving sustainable development goals. Exploring the application of financial technology is an important factor in driving innovative development of carbon credit products. Therefore, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hong Kong Stock Exchange successfully tested a use case related to tokenized carbon credit trading under the Ensemble project framework in 2025, aiming to utilize new technologies such as blockchain to facilitate cross-border trades and enhance the transparency and efficiency of carbon credit tracking. The HKMA and HKEX will publish a report on the test results of this use case in due course, summarizing the achievements of the test and providing valuable experience and a solid foundation for future financial innovation products promoting a low carbon economy. Since its launch in 2022, Core Climate has continued to expand its product offerings. By the end of 2025, the platform had expanded to include over 60 carbon reduction projects, including forestry projects in Asia, South America, and Africa, CECEP Solar Energy, wind energy, and biomass projects. In addition to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) under Verra, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange included the Gold Standard Verified Emission Reductions (GS-VER) in Core Climate in August 2024, diversifying tradable climate projects and continuing to actively expand related products and services to support emission reduction projects locally, regionally, and in other areas. The country is actively building a more effective, dynamic, and internationally influential national carbon market to promote green and low-carbon transformation, and help achieve peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality goals. As such, the Hong Kong government is actively collaborating with mainland regulatory departments and institutions to study matters related to helping the country participate in the international carbon market, including setting voluntary carbon credit standards and methods, and registering, trading, and settling carbon emission reductions. Utilizing Hong Kong's advantage as a bridge between China and the world, the government is serving the country's dual carbon strategy and helping build better connections with the international carbon market. In addition, in September 2025, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Guangzhou Emissions Trading Center, the Shenzhen Green Exchange, and the Macau International Carbon Emissions Trading Exchange, to jointly promote the development of the Greater Bay Area carbon market and green financial ecosystem. According to the memorandum of cooperation, the four exchanges will explore collaboration opportunities in the carbon market and green finance sectors, promote knowledge sharing and experience exchange, enhance the professional capabilities of relevant institutions and personnel in the operation of the carbon market and green finance, and deepen the development of the regional carbon market.