Hong Kong Hosts IGU Summit on Sustainable Energy Future
AM730 · 1 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
The International Gas Union (IGU) brought its council meeting and summit to Hong Kong for the first time, with Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited, or Towngas, serving as host for the four-day event that concluded on October 29. More than 400 representatives from energy companies, governments and academia attended to discuss a “sustainable future” for the industry. Speakers focused on the Asia-Pacific region’s role in global gas demand, China’s gas market, regional energy transition pathways and the role of finance in supporting the sector. The discussions repeatedly returned to how existing gas infrastructure can be used to lower the cost of decarbonisation while maintaining reliable supply
Key Points
- IGU President Andrea Stegher said the organisation’s members come from 70 countries and regions and cover 90% of the global natural gas market
- Stegher said the gas industry currently meets one quarter of global energy demand and is pursuing biomethane, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage
- Towngas managing director Peter Wong Wai-yee (黃維義) said natural gas is important in Hong Kong for town gas production and power generation replacing coal
- Wong said Towngas serves more than 45 million households in mainland China and supplies over 2 million customers in Hong Kong through 3,700 kilometres of pipelines
- A panel on Asian energy strategy featured experts from Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, who said gas demand remains strong if cleaner gas can be delivered at low cost
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, the summit underlines how the city’s existing gas network is being framed as an asset in the energy transition rather than infrastructure to be sidelined immediately. It also places Hong Kong in a regional conversation about balancing decarbonisation, energy security and financing, especially as electricity demand linked to technologies such as artificial intelligence grows