Building a World Top Green and Sustainable Bond Hub

67.5% 32.5% Green bond Other GSS+ bond 233% -21% 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Billion US dollars 2019 2021 2022 2023 12 Hong Kong’s Transition Towards a Green and Sustainable Finance Center: Building a World Top Green and Sustainable Bond Hub According to the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), in 2023 alone, the GSS+ volume was 870 billion US dollars and 67.5% (587.6 billion US dollars) were from the green theme (Figure 4). The pandemic further drove increased issuance as governments and organizations sought funding for pandemic-related needs. The global sustainable bond market saw issuance volume growing from below 234 billion US dollars in 2019 to over 780 billion US dollars in 2021 (Figure 5); however, this trend slowed down after that with the issuance volume dropping to about 620 billion US dollars in 2022 and 2023. Global Sustainable Bond Market (2023) Figure 4: Green Bond’s Share in the Sustainable Bond Issuance in 2023 (Source: By the research team based on data from the CBI) Global Sustainable Bond Issuance Figure 5: Global Sustainable Bond Market (Source: By the research team based on data from the ICMA. Note: Lack of data for 2020)