Integrating Biodiversity for Financial Decision Making

Bien Wong is a highly experienced professional with a background in ESG, investor relations, and public affairs in both mainland China and Hong Kong markets. He has worked with global firms and companies listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, and has specialised in assisting corporations in integrating sustainability concepts into their business strategies and steering green financing projects in the field of sustainability.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

Everything has a price. Everything needs a price.

Hong Kong has yet to put a price on carbon through carbon tax or emission trade to reflect the polluter pays principle.

Felix is an experienced Manager, who has worked in different industries in different operations. He has a wide expertise in sustainability topics around sustainable mobility, sustainable food industry, sustainable forestry. At RethinkHK he is happy to get to know as many people as possible. At FSC Felix works in the Marketing and Commercial Unit. His role is to do the matchmaking between Forest Managers who get FSC verification for their efforts in the FSC ecosystem services carbon storage, clean water, healthy soil, thriving biodiversity and recreation as well as businesses who are looking for the right projects to sponsor sustainable forest management. In accordance to the FSC slogan “FORESTS – FOR ALL – FOREVER

Carlos Serrano is the Principal Operations Officer, a seasoned leader in Climate Finance Advisory & Knowledge Services, he has a career spanning over 35 years in senior banking positions across four continents, including institutions such as BBVA Group, Inter-American Development Bank, BID Invest, and since 2013, IFC, where at FIG, he has significantly contributed to promoting sustainability in the banking industry.
Previously, he served as IFC’s Climate Finance Advisory and Knowledge Services Lead for the Latin-American Financial Sector, providing strategic support and founding the Green Banking Academy (GBAC). Under his leadership, GBAC mobilized US$3.7 billion in climate finance, provided climate advisory to 40 institutions from 15 countries, trained 43,000 professionals, and awarded 813 climate finance scholarships.
Carlos has held various roles within IFC, including FIG LAC Access to Finance Program Manager & South America Hub Leader, and Global Relationship Manager for some of IFC’s top clients, including Santander, BBVA, and FELABAN (Regional Banking Association for Latin America). He serves as an Adjunct Professor of Sustainable Finance at IE University in Madrid and holds law degree from CEU University, Madrid, an International MBA from IE Business School, a Diploma in Finance from GSB at Stanford University, and a Diploma in Sustainable Finance from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership.

Dr. Amos P. K. Tai is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). Amos obtained his B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Engineering from Harvard University, and was a Croucher Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT before he joined CUHK in 2013. Amos specializes in atmospheric chemistry and physics, ecoclimatology, biosphere-atmosphere interactions, and sustainable agriculture and forestry. His research combines Earth system modeling and data analytics to address pressing sustainability issues, including the impacts of air pollution and climate change on forest ecosystems and agriculture, and how food system transformation and better land management can mitigate climate change and environmental pollution. His work has been published in top-ranking journals in the atmospheric and environmental sciences including Nature Climate Change, Nature Food, Nature Communications and Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, and earned him the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Research Award for Young Scientists, Early Career Award from the Research Grants Council (Hong Kong), Science Faculty Young Researcher Award, and founding membership of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. Amos is also a passionate educator, having received the prestigious CUHK Vice-Chancellor Exemplary Teaching Award and Faculty of Science Exemplary Teaching Awards, and concurrently serving as the Associate Director of the Office of University General Education at CUHK. Amos delights in promoting science, environmental and sustainability education for the general public, regularly giving talks in schools and public avenues and participating in many TV and radio programs. He has provided professional consulting services to government departments including the Highways Department, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, and Environmental Protection Department. He currently serves as a Board Governor of Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong).

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

I would love to particularly see that social and environmental responsibility becomes an imperative objective in all businesses; that climate justice is widely recognized as a core aspect of climate action in public discourse; that supermarkets, retailers and restaurants substantially reduce their food packaging and food waste before sales; that plant-based diets and zero food waste become a fixture in local food culture; that the poorest people in Hong Kong can be food-secure; and that Hong Kong’s food systems can have much lower environmental footprints while bringing its citizens better health, better enjoyment, and better equity.

Jiaqi Xiong possesses extensive experience in ESG management consulting, sustainability marketing and disclosure for enterprises. She is highly proficient in global and local ESG standards and rating methodologies. Her primary consulting experience covers large state-owned enterprises and listed companies in industries such as finance, healthcare, and new energy.

As a key contact, she took a significant role in the early stage of establishing the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation Beijing Office, and made important contribution to organize the Beijing International Sustainability Conference, which is aimed to enable Chinese companies to better understand and apply the international sustainability standards.

Previously, she was employed by China’s largest and leading credit rating and risk assessment service provider, where she led the development and release of the group standard “ESG Reporting Guidelines for Building Materials Enterprises”. This industry-specific standard provides a framework for companies in the building materials sector to guide their ESG disclosures and improve performance.