A Paradigm Shift Towards a Green and Sustainable Finance Center

35 Hong Kong in Transition: A Paradigm Shift Towards a Green and Sustainable Finance Center 4.2.3 From Shared Belief to Paradigm Shift For Hong Kong, the global shared belief in green transformation provides a new anchor to promote the city and potentially help harmonize the differences in green development. From the European Green Deal to the Chinese ecological civilization, China and the West today regard green development as the new common-ground vision. Green has become the new ideology shared by China and the West. The new green development idea has also evolved from its old version which believed that green development would increase social costs to the new belief that green development is an opportunity. This change represents a change in logic from responsibility-driven to interest-driven green finance activities. In December 2020, the EU and China concluded in principle the negotiations for the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment . The agreement includes two-way market access commitments, fair competition rules, sustainable development and dispute settlement mechanisms, bringing huge investment opportunities for China and the EU. The most recent meeting of the High-Level Environment and Climate Dialogue, which took place in July 2023, became the highest-level political format of the bilateral engagement and stressed again the consensus between EU and China leaders to further deepen and strengthen cooperation on green transition issues. The bilateral economic and trade cooperation, along with the alignment of the competing regimes, creates opportunities for Hong Kong to play to its advantages and connect the Mainland and the West. Hong Kong proactively shifting its direction in finance to green finance can be a self-determined strategic choice to maintain the city’s competitiveness in the global market. This paradigm shift fundamentally entails a change in the shared belief underpinning the orientation of financial activities. Shared beliefs at the level of policy core alter the topic scope of a policy subsystem. The shared belief in green development that is embedded in the green finance policy subsystem marks a paradigm shift, or a major policy change in other words, as a result of the change in policy core belief.