Climate change is a major challenge for the world, countries and local governments around the world are actively working on climate mitigation and adaptation. Following the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement became effective on November 4, 2016. The key provisions of the Paris Agreement call for joint actions around the world, working with different organizations to vigorously carry out more effective and aggressive climate actions with a view to:

• Achieve peak greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (thereafter “carbon emissions”) as soon as possible and achieve carbon neutrality between 2051 and 2100; and

• Keep the rise in mean global temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, and make effort to limit the increase to 1.5 °C

At the 75th United Nations Conference on 22 September 2020, China announced that “China will increase its national intensity of autonomous contributions, adopt more powerful policies and measures, strive to reach peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060”. According to the report published by the China Association of Building Energy Efficiency in 2021, the life cycle carbon emissions of the nation’s buildings accounted for 51.5% of the nation’s carbon emissions in 2018, and the low-carbon transformation of the construction industry is imminent. Prior to that, the Hong Kong Government has set carbon emissions targets in the “Hong Kong Climate Action Plan 2030+” with a view to achieving absolute carbon emissions reduction of 26% to 36% by 2030 and has proposed four major strategies for carbon reduction in the latest “Hong Kong Climate Action Plan 2050”, namely: Net-zero Electricity Generation, Energy Saving and Green Buildings, Green Transportation and Waste reduction. Correspondingly, the construction industry should also strive to achieve an 11% reduction in regular business by 2030.

In order to actively respond to the global call of “carbon neutrality” and enhance the competitiveness of green and low-carbon construction, CSHK continuously reviews and improves the sustainable development measures and performance, and strives to explore the low-carbon transformation of contractors based on sustainable development strategies with “Building Consensus”, “Promoting Innovation” and “Creating Value” as the core. In June 2021, CSHK established the Carbon Neutrality and Carbon Assets Development Committee and a working group. At the first committee meeting, the director of the committee, Mr. Hung, approved and determined O⬝PARK2 as a pilot project to practice the possibility of achieving carbon neutrality during the construction period.