Workshop on Corporate Sustainability

On 8 April 2026, the Asia-Pacific Centre for Environmental Law (APCEL) and EW Barker Centre for Law & Business (EWBCLB) at the National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law, and the Asian Law Schools Association (ALSA) co-hosted a workshop on Corporate Sustainability.

Both Virginia Harper Ho, Professor of Law at City University of Hong Kong and Visiting Scholar Professor at EWBCLB, and Jolene Lin, Associate Professor, and director of APCEL at NUS Law are co-chairs of the ALSA’s Environmental and Sustainability Chapter. They led the discussion on two papers that addressed major issues in sustainable business law. The workshop was attended by young and established scholars from the three entities, fostering a lively interdisciplinary conversation.

The first paper, ‘Growing & Greening Private Capital Markets in East Asia: Divergent Innovation Pathways in Hong Kong and Singapore’ by Lin Lin, Associate Professor at EWBCLB, NUS Law and Virginia Harper Ho examines how environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations are being built into private equity and venture capital in Hong Kong and Singapore. The paper compares how the two leading Asian financial hubs deploy a mix of regulations and financial incentives to encourage sustainable investing across the full lifecycle of private funds—from fundraising to investment decisions, and eventually, exit. The paper highlighted key differences in approach and the areas where future policy reforms could better support the growth of sustainable private investment in these financial centres.

Notably, the paper observed that while Hong Kong and Singapore seek to position themselves as international green finance hubs and developed a regulatory infrastructure to encourage green investment, whether these measures will advance the “greening” of venture capital and private equity (PE/VC) finance remains unknown. Private financing plays a limited role in supporting national and local decarbonisation goals, and academic research and policy focus have been centered on the potential of green finance measures in the public equity markets, or on green bonds and other debt instruments, rather than on private capital markets. Yet, private capital markets are important, as investors and fund managers may have stronger mechanisms to monitor and influence the companies in which they invest.

The second paper, ‘Climate Engagement by Institutional Investors in State-owned Enterprises: An Emerging Market Perspective’ by Dr Param Pandya, APCEL Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF) Fellow focuses on state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which account for the majority of global fossil fuel emissions but remain understudied in the literature on institutional investor climate engagement.

The paper examines institutional investors’ efforts to engage Indian state-owned enterprises (SOEs) on climate issues, noting that these efforts are not falling short due to investor disengagement but because the state, as controlling shareholder, has not provided strategic direction to its SOEs on climate issues. Using India as a case study, the paper argues that this failure is a structural problem. With some lessons for other emerging markets. It calls for reforms to make the state a more responsible, climate-focused owner.

Together, the two papers underscored that advancing climate goals through finance requires more than investor initiative or regulatory innovation—it depends on deeper alignment with underlying governance structures.

Related links:

• Virginia Harper Ho, Professor of Law at City University of Hong Kong and Visiting Scholar, EWBCLB at NUS Law, Co-Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Chapter, ALSA.
• Lin Lin, Associate Professor at EWBCLB, NUS Law
• Param Pandya, APCEL Quadrature Climate Foundation (QCF) Fellow
• Jolene Lin, Associate Professor and Director of APCEL at NUS Law, Co-Chair of the Environment and Sustainability Chapter, ALSA.
• Asian Law Schools Association – Chapters