Academy of Interdisciplinary Studies Division of Environment and Sustainability 208 Exploring Private-led Adaptation Financing Opportunities in Hong Kong Supervisor: DELINA Laurence Laurencio / ENVR Student: WIDIA Madeleine Rachel / EVMT Course: UROP 1000, Summer Hong Kong is transitioning towards sustainability, as manifested in its widening scope of Green Finance initiatives to make environmental responsibility a core principle for driving financial activities. Given the increasing severity of climate-related risks, there is a growing need for Hong Kong to explore innovative financial solutions to protect its environment, economic, and social wellbeing. By aligning the finance industry with broader sustainability goals, including climate change, Hong Kong seeks to position itself as a leader in sustainable finance. However, global climate-related investments are focusing more on mitigation measures than adaptation. This project addresses this gap by investigating Hong Kong’s potential for private sector-led adaptation finance, making Hong Kong more resilient in the face of climate change impacts. Air Quality Data Analysis and Interpretation Supervisor: GU Dasa / ENVR Student: LAI Long / CIVL Course: UROP 2100, Fall Air pollution has been a serious and growing concern in Hong Kong (Wang et al., 2006). Being one of the most densely populated cities in the world, gigantic amounts of air pollutants from a wide variety of sources are emitted into the atmosphere in Hong Kong every day and is threatening the health of the residents. Nevertheless, Hong Kong has been effective in limiting the amount of emissions through the implementation of stringent mitigation measures and the development of cutting-edge technologies (Lyu et al. 2017). This can be well illustrated in this report by the decrease in VOC emissions from the power generation sector from 0.587 kiloton to 0.5 kiloton over the past decade, which can be explained by the shift of usage from coal to natural gas. Machine Learning for Environmental Applications Supervisor: LAU Alexis Kai Hon / ENVR Co-supervisor: FUNG Jimmy Chi Hung / ENVR Student: CHANG Wing Lum / CIEV Course: UROP 1100, Spring The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) in the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to engage in research activities under the guidance of faculty members. For my third-time participation in this program, I have enrolled in the project “Machine Learning for Environmental Applications”, supervised by Professor Alexis KH Lau. In fact, my understanding of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning was limited – perhaps a bit more than “ChatGPT”. My background in Civil and Environmental Engineering was also not inclined on programming – the basics of the topic. Hence, the project was mainly a learning journey about AI and python programming. In addition, students were allowed to choose their own area of interest for Environmental Application, for which I have chosen to explore the area of air quality modelling. Professor Lau was very encouraging towards the process of learning and in-depth, high-order thinking, rather than quickly producing an end-product. Owing to that, I have experienced a quality learning and thinking journey this Spring Semester.
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