ABSTRACT
Hong Kong, referred to colloquially as the 'pearl of the orient', stands out as one of the dense nodes of light that mark China's coastal cities on NASA's now-familiar image of the earth at night. However, during the 2000s, as the Chinese central government sought to develop a low carbon economy in response to climate change while business interests and non-state actors in the city simultaneously began to mobilize for action, there has been a gradual shift in this position. The position adopted by the Hong Kong government sits in contrast to that of the emerging coalition of private interests in the city. This chapter examines how, in the context of a relative policy vacuum, this coalition of private actors began to mobilize to govern climate change in the city through a series of experiments which sought to target dispositions towards energy use. It provides attention to one particular initiative, the Climateer's programme, developed in partnership between WWF and HSBC.
