Pressing Pause to Reset & Accelerate Action –  Given the UN Climate Ambition Summit last month, we thought it’s a good time to press pause and do a review. So this month, we talk to green guru Ma Jun on the rise of carbon neutral products, and HK Green Finance Association’s (HKGFA) new SecGen on the future direction of green finance. Also, we share our key takeaways on what’s hot and what’s not at the World Water Week in Stockholm and the World Water Congress in Beijing.

Net zero/carbon neutral – it’s where we need to get to if we are going to limit global warming especially since an unusually hot September has now put 2023 on track for 1.4°C of warming.

Carbon neutral products could be a way forward and Apple has set the trend with its new carbon neutral watch. But is it really carbon neutral? A report by the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) says that there isn’t enough supplier data to back the carbon neutral claim.

So we sat down with Ma Jun, the Founder & Director of IPE to find out more. See what other shocking findings he has to share like how Apple is engaging with suppliers (or not) and his thoughts on how to prevent climate washing. Surely we need to hit pause and make sure that carbon neutrality claims are substantiated before we all jump into the “carbon neutral” marketing bandwagon.

To bring temperatures back down, we need to transition faster and this will need a massive injection of green finance. Here, we turn to the HKGFA which has been doing a stellar job of promoting green finance in HK. This year marks the HKGFA’s 5th anniversary and as a founding member, CWR is pleased to see the Association grow from 50 to more than 160 members today.

Given this anniversary, CWR sat down with Tsun Chen, the new Secretary General of the HKGFA to look back on its achievements, and the association’s future direction. How is the HKGFA working with the Greater Bay Area? Which sectors will be prioritised for transition? Will they focus on adaptation finance? Plus, find out why Chen transitioned from mainstream to green finance and why you should be excited about the space.

Indeed, we need more talent to transition into this space as “Humanity has opened the gates to hell” by letting the climate crisis worsen, as warned by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the UN Climate Ambition Summit in late September. This means that our water woes will only worsen as water is how we feel the climate crisis. So, where are global water conversations?

Well, in Stockholm at World Water Week (WWW), where CWR co-hosted a Talk Show with RSK on net zero water utilities and was a panellist in two seminars, it was clear that water conversations have advanced. There’s now a broad understanding that a holistic approach is a must, and that water is core to the climate; points that CWR has been pushing since we first participated in 2014.

Get more on what was discussed in Stockholm in our key takeaways from WWW 2023 and see why what happens at WWW shouldn’t stay at WWW. Also, CWR’s McGregor and Lam share personal reflections on the conference – it was Lam’s first WWW whereas McGregor’s first WWW was 10 years ago!

Meanwhile, it was encouraging to find out that similar conversations on a holistic approach and water’s central role in climate were happening on the other side of the world at the World Water Congress (WWC) in Beijing – this was the first time the WWC was held in China.

A main theme at the WWC was China’s comprehensive national water management. With China being “closed to rest of the world” for the last several years due to the pandemic, it was great to see what local stakeholders have been working on and achieving during those years and the innovative management practices they have implemented. See more in our key takeaways.

In pressing pause to review the conversations at these global water conferences, we realised that sea level rise, storm surges and coastal protection discussions were missing in both events. But these are crucial in ensuring water security and adapting to the climate crisis, especially in Asia where we are particularly vulnerable.

Sadly, there are worrying trends in the cryosphere that do not bode well for rising seas. We will unpack the latest science next month, so stay tuned and sign-up if you’re not. In the meantime, we hope this newsletter will help you reset your views on climate and water risks and position you to accelerate action.