22.5.2023
2
mins
By
Terry Ng
Last week, Cogo’s team attended a panel discussion about these changes in the Greater Bay Area’s (GBA), including defining them and their implications. Hosted by the Fintech Association of Hong Kong’s GreenTech & ESG Committee (in collaboration with Cognito), the panel explored compliance as well as some of the most common mistakes companies make when approaching ESG and sustainability.
Moving beyond compliance
“As a megalopolis, we believe the banking and finance sector in the GBA has a far more important role than compliance,” said Terry Ng, Cogo’s Business Development Manager for Asia. He added: “They have a pivotal role to play in the transition to a low carbon society.”
An invitation to lead
“Right now, there are important organisational choices to make. We can either choose to ‘react’ to legislation, taking steps to comply ‘just in time’; or we can choose to lead. Leadership at Cogo looks like making carbon emissions measurement an everyday part of personal and business finance management,” said Terry.
In line with this, the release of Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050 has seen Wong Kam-sing - Secretary for the Environment - write that “The Government, the private sector and the general public must take proactive actions together…”
Other key takeaways from the discussion included:
- There is significant work to do on how financial institutes can foster a greener economy.
- There are distinctive business advantages to decarbonisation.
- This transition must be done with integrity, and there is work to do to ensure we avoid greenwashing.
- Localised and accurate data collection will be key to measuring and reflecting our progress accurately.
- ‘Concern’ about the environment (the E in ESG) and regulations that govern this must be underpinned by adopting better habits. In many ways, the ‘S’ in ESG should include fostering societal behaviour that meets this challenge head-on.
Localised change
Cogo is rapidly expanding into Asia, including establishing offices in Hong Kong and Japan. It has also established partnerships with Asian FinTech innovators Planto, Moneythor and Moneytree and has piloted a carbon footprint calculator with some of OCBC Bank’s customers (Singapore).
“Importantly, Cogo’s strategy for the region is ‘localised’. We are building market-specific carbon data models with corresponding climate actions set for each region we operate in. This enables us to help individuals and businesses to accurately measure, understand and reduce their impact on the climate in a culturally appropriate way,” explained Terry.
He added, “Cogo’s message to banks and accounting platforms is a simple one - ‘first movers’ who enable their customers to make more conscious spending decisions will corner a definite competitive advantage in this market and establish a leadership position amongst their competitors.”
Interested in finding out more? Get in touch with Terry.
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