You recently visited Angkor Wat in Cambodia on a heritage conservation mission. How is climate change a threat to heritage and heritage sites?
I, along with other international journalists, interviewed [climate change adaptation researcher and advocate] Dr Victoria Herrmann. A few years ago, Dr Herrmann travelled across the US and interviewed people living in coastal regions who were prone to climate calamity on what they feared losing the most. She found that instead of tangible assets it was the people’s culture, such as dances, that they cared about the most. This inspired her to set up her current National Geographic project, Preserving Legacies: A Future for Our Past, which draws upon scientific and local knowledge to find sustainable and culturally appropriate solutions to the long-term preservation of iconic cultural heritage sites against climate change impacts.

Often we think of heritage conservation as quite far removed from climate issues, but heritage sites are facing imminent climate threats. For example, Angkor Wat is facing seasonal flooding [and that can damage the ancient temples. Herrmann’s mission is] to upskill and raise climate literacy of the local communities, and to empower them to formulate their own climate adaptation plan for the next ten to 15 years.

Tell us about your trip to Antarctica.
I was invited by Ocean Geographic to join this expedition. The trip was put together by marine biologist Dr Sylvia Earle, [and we were joined by] ocean experts from Earle’s NGO Mission Blue, experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), professors studying penguin behaviour and more than 110 experts from different backgrounds and disciplines. The focus of this expedition was finding solutions to accelerate carbon neutrality by 2035, and we believe the ocean has a huge role to play.

Antarctica is a microcosm of the world’s oceans and marine ecosystems. It’s what other oceans could look like without human intervention, because Antarctica is the only continent on the planet that [is not inhabited by humans. And by using our investigation in Antarctica as a model for other oceans] we hope to champion the oceans’ potential for solving climate crises.

Traditional climate solutions have been land-based. For instance, Monaco has the Trillion Tree Campaign where trees are planted as a land-based carbon sink. But we know that oceans are the most important carbon sink in nature. They have the capacity to sequester most of the carbon we produce and are key to keeping our carbon cycle moving. The ocean generates 50 per cent of the oxygen we need, and it absorbs 25 per cent of our carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90 per cent of excess heat. So, it’s a crucial component in cooling down our planet.

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What solutions did you and the team come up with to protect our oceans?
Some of the resolutions we championed on the expedition are generic. One of them is advocating for a ban on commercial fishing, [because otherwise, by 2050 there may not be] any fish left in the water because of overfishing. There’s also the problem of seabed trawling, bycatches and the injury of sea turtles and dolphins during industrial fishing.

As an Asian representative, I saw a major gap between US and Asian delegates on the ship. For example, US delegates proposed banning commercial fishing totally as a solution, but it might be impossible to do so in Asia. Fishing is a major source of protein, livelihood and economy for a lot of coastal communities, especially in this region. So as a representative of this part of the world, I helped reach solutions that balance our communities’ needs while paving the way for [potential economic] transitions.

We also hope to implement a climate-smart approach when drawing up the boundaries of marine-protected areas. While it’s important to protect biodiversity hotspots, we should also be identifying waters based on their potential to sequester carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

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What were your favourite moments on the trip?
We were lucky enough to do some snorkelling and diving. I saw how rich the ocean is. There was a lot of algae and planktons; penguins jumping in and out of the water; whales emerging out of the water; seals lying on ice sheets... And then there were these explosive sounds of icebergs being carved apart [as our ship ventured into Antarctica].

Isn’t travelling to Antarctica by default an unsustainable activity?
I get a lot of criticism [because my company V'Air champions] low-carbon tourism, so [my journey to Antarctica] was a contradiction. I debated a lot against myself.

During the expedition, I sampled surface ocean water throughout the 14 days of the voyage and collected ten samples across the Southern Ocean and found microplastics in each. Some of them are obviously from expedition jackets: they were red and green filaments. I knew that we were trying to minimise our impact by vacuuming our clothes and putting our shoes in liquid chemicals to sanitise them before we step onto the ice, but we were leaving so much footprint that we wouldn’t even notice. Another ironic thing was that we had a fishless menu on the cruise ship, but there were still beef ribs, and people kept eating them.

After the expedition, a lot of the people told me that it was their dream to go to Antarctica. They said, “I [wanted to] do it once in my lifetime.” I didn’t know how to respond. I felt that most explorers onboard didn’t dwell too much on the environmental impact of their travels because they were [on the trip to benefit humanity and to find new knowledge].

Now I wouldn’t encourage [tours to Antarctica]. It might be selfish for me to say that because I’ve already been there, but there should be a cap on the number of tourists or researchers. In 2021, there were around 30,000 people who visited Antarctica, and in 2022, after the borders opened, there were 100,000 people, which was insane. Antarctica cannot afford such excessive tourism.

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Now that you’ve returned to Hong Kong, do you have any follow-up work for this trip?
I was the only representative from Hong Kong so I hope to bring my observations and learnings from the trip back to my city. I hope to connect this remote continent to Asia. During the trip, I asked Sylvia, Craig Leeson, [a filmmaker who made a documentary about this expedition] and [archaeologist] Josh Bernstein how the melting glaciers in Antarctica [might affect] Hong Kong, and got interesting perspectives from all of them. I’m currently working with the [Jockey Club] Museum of Climate Change at The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum on projects related to how the impact of Antarctica can be more immediate to Hong Kong than we think.

How will it affect our city, and is it really so immediate?
The melting of Antarctica's ice sheets will push up the sea level, which will threaten Hong Kong and other coastal communities.

[We may not see the impact of climate change right now in] Hong Kong, and we do not see the connection between us and Pacific Island countries or coastal or indigenous communities who are already suffering from climate change. So the only way to incentivise people to act is by instilling the mindset of global citizenship, so that we understand the role we play in the global arena. Hong Kong is a very resilient city. We can contribute to the climate movement by sharing our experiences of building a resilient grid system [against typhoons] and Blue-Green Infrastructure, [a globally recognised approach to urban flood resilience]. If we share this knowledge with Cambodia, Indonesia or other Southeast Asian countries, it can serve as a positive case study.

In what areas can Hong Kong improve?
Our government’s climate policies are lagging behind other Asian countries like Singapore, Nepal and Malaysia. Mainland China has a lot of electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell buses running already, while Hong Kong’s hydrogen fuel cell bus is nowhere near commercialisation. I was speaking with the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department earlier, who said that the future roadmap of Hong Kong is to explore and invest heavily in hydrogen fuel cell. But there are lots of obstacles because Hong Kong is a densely populated city—and there’s a risk of explosion because hydrogen is highly flammable.

At the moment, Hong Kong corporates are not funding any [clean energy] adaptation projects, perhaps because Hong Kong hasn’t faced severe climate impacts yet. For example, we look at heat waves that affect subdivided flats where the residents are suffering from extreme heat, which drew society’s attention to marginalised people living in these conditions—but this was treated as a poverty issue rather than a climate issue.

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What are you doing to fight this?
I met an expedition guide from mainland China on the ship who worked for two years on the Antarctic Chinese Research Station. He founded an NGO that spreads the message about protecting Antarctica. I’m working with him to explore collaborations in Hong Kong.

I’m also starting an ocean-focused impact capital venture in Hong Kong, supported by a wealth management firm headquartered in Shanghai. A lot of the ocean startups I got to know on the expedition are based in the US and their impacts are limited to America and Europe. They are not familiar enough with Asian waters to expand to this region yet. It would be great if I am able to build this impact fund to support emerging technologies in Asia. I’ve already spoken with 20 startups that work on ocean tech in Asia.

What’s next for you as a climate advocate?
The trip to Antarctica was a wake-up call for me. I know I’ve been treading this climate path for a long time, and in the past that was okay because people associate me with everything related to climate. But as the [sustainability] industry becomes more mature, it has branched out into different specialties: gender and climate, climate mitigation, adaptation, climate finance and ESG. Now I’m trying to find a space where I can pick up a speciality. I’ll potentially be doing a PhD in blue carbon or marine ecosystem, given that I had this opportunity to go on this expedition. I’m hoping to find focus within the climate space and turn it into a new career path.

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