Private Governance of Climate Change in Hong Kong: An Analysis of Drivers and Barriers to Corporate Action

Abstract

This study examines how corporate governance of climate change is developing in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Hong Kong), Asia's leading financial centre. It situates corporate actions within the broader framework of urban multi-stakeholder climate governance. In the absence of international obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and government regulation to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the majority of companies in Hong Kong have yet to tackle climate change. However, a small number of proactive corporations are acting to reduce climate change induced risks and reposition themselves to take advantage of climate change opportunities. Focusing on these leading corporations, this study identifies the motivations for and barriers to action. It concludes that corporations are only one of the necessary players in addressing climate change at the city level. Corporate climate change governance could be improved in Hong Kong by developing a stronger institutional framework and broader civil society support.

The interplay between stakeholders, resources and capabilities in climate change strategy: converting barriers into cooperation

“…Another important stakeholder group is clients, who are the second most cited stakeholder in the articles analyzed. Clients are in a particularly strong position to motivate organizations to adopt green practices (Chu & Schroeder, ), but can also act as a barrier by not recognizing these practices (Ng et al, ). Suppliers may stand out due to their ability or inability to accurately measure CO 2 emissions from their operations (Garbuzova & Madlener, ), provide carbon efficient technologies (Ng et al, ), adapt to different types of production processes (Eisenack et al, ; Jones, ) or even provide them (Liu, , ).…”

Governing and accelerating transformative entrepreneurship: exploring the potential for small business innovation on urban sustainability transitions

“…Other challenges in meeting environmental goals include the managers' poor environmental training and short-term orientation, the status of the environmental function in the company as a whole, and SMEs' lower capacity to give rise to highly radical innovations [24,40]. Also, going it alone, against common practices of the sector, creates barriers to change [55].…”

Institutional deficit and lack of legitimacy: the challenges of climate change governance in Hong Kong

“…Di Alexandra et al 2007, Loh and Stevenson 2008, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. 2009a, 2009b, Salter and Miles 2010, Climate Change Business Forum 2010 provide evidence that individual sectors of the society and economy are going one step further to propose voluntary actions to mitigate (through reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions) and adapt to (through appropriate coastal planning and flood risk management) the effects of climate change. Yet, systematic analyses of the drivers of and barriers to the necessary governance change needed to set Hong Kong on the path towards an effective climate strategy remain rare (but see Chu and Schroeder 2010).…”