Connecting the Dots: How Capital Moves Through the Energy Transition Finance Chain

Dr. Ivan LI is an Executive Director in China Galaxy International Holding limited and found the first carbon business department among all Chinese Financial Institutions in Hong Kong. He managed a team to develop innovative carbon business, green & sustainable finance products and promoting cross-border carbon trading. He led the team to create the first cross-border carbon futures product and the first domestic “Insurance + carbon futures” product, providing domestic enterprises with financial tools to hedging the CBAM risk. Among them, the “EU Carbon Emission Futures Contract Cross-Border Return Swap (TRS)” received the Pioneer Award in the Annual Green Finance Excellence Cases of the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau, the Best Solution Award in the Hong Kong China Finance Association’s “Excellence in Cross-Border Financial Services Awards.”, as well as 2023 The IFF Global Green Finance Award- Innovation Award. He took lead to issue the world’s first green bond using “drone + carbon satellite” certification. He successfully facilitated the first cross-border sale of “one-Yuan carbon offset project” and was awarded the Special Excellence Award in the Hong Kong China Finance Association’s “Excellence in Cross-Border Financial Services Awards.” He designed the first QFLP cross-border carbon fund, which is the first northbound fund to participate in serving the development of the domestic carbon market; and participated in the launch of the Asia Pacific Low Carbon Index ETF, which is the world’s first low carbon ETF covering the Asia Pacific region and the largest equity ETF listed on the SGX. He is one of the members of the first session of the Emission Peak and Carbon Neutrality Professional Committee of the China Society for Environmental Sciences. In the China Society for Environmental Sciences Carbon Emission Trading Professional Committee Establishment Conference and China Carbon Market Development Seminar, he was elected as a member of the Carbon Trading Professional Committee. He is also the Secretary General of the Hong Kong Energy Services Association and has been invited to join the Hong Kong Finance Development Council’s Carbon Market Opportunities Task Force as an expert.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

1.Connect carbon markets and climate financing – a goal aligned with Article 6 of the 2015 Paris Agreement -with a view to facilitate Chinese investment;
2. Move a small step forward for Hong Kong’s goals of becoming a major green and climate finance hub, amid growing concerns about the effects of climate change across the Asia-Pacific

Dragon Tang is Professor of Finance at the University of Hong Kong. He is also a Changjiang Scholar Chair Professor by Ministry of Education of China and Managing Editor of International Review of Finance. He was the former head of finance area in HKU Business School. His research specialties are green finance, ESG, credit derivatives, and China markets. He served as consultant expert on green finance and ESG issues for Asian Development Bank, World Bank and Hong Kong Centre for Green and Sustainable Finance. He provided training lectures for People’s Bank of China and China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission. He received research grants from many organizations including ClimateWorks Foundation. His research findings are published in, among others, Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Management Science and featured in Bloomberg, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and so on. He received several best research paper awards from journals, conferences, and international organizations including the Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment. He was an inaugural recipient of the Best Doctoral Dissertation Supervisor Award by National Economics Foundation of China. He launched the Master of Sustainable Accounting and Finance (MSAF) program at the University of Hong Kong in 2025.

Master’s degree from Durham University. Ms. Zhu is a distinguished researcher at the Research Center of Sustainable Development of Fudan University. She is the Deputy Secretary-General of the Carbon Neutrality Committee of the China Energy Conservation Association, Vice President of the GBA Carbon Neutrality Association, Vice President and Secretary-General of the Carbon Neutrality Committee of the International Green Economy Association, an Executive Director of the Center for China and Globalization (CCG), an Industry Mentor for postgraduate students at the China-UK Low Carbon College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Law and Business, UC Berkeley.

Ms. Zhu is one of the early pioneers in China’s carbon trading and low-carbon industry. She has long been committed to building a comprehensive industrial chain covering carbon asset development and management, carbon trading, and carbon finance. As a representative entrepreneur in China`s low-carbon sector, she has been invited multiple times to deliver speeches at international conferences, including the United Nations Climate Change Conferences and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

1. By 2026, to support stronger carbon market cooperation in Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific region, with hopes of better alignment of carbon credit standards and improved market connectivity.

2. In Hong Kong, to encourage the development of nature-based and technology-driven climate solutions, and to foster cross-border cooperation that may support measurable emissions reduction