We live in an era in which the word “sustainability” and the associated term “ESG” are bandied about like confetti while the world’s overall reaction and response to the inherent and indeed existential importance of these issues remain lackluster, non-urgent and, in some self-interested quarters, increasingly dismissed as “fake news”. We should and must focus on our oceans, forests, ice caps and climate, but we should also look above our heads. Right now, we are sleepwalking into a looming environmental and financial catastrophe, not just on Earth, but in low-Earth orbit (LEO). This is a clear danger to the global economy and our ability to monitor the health of our planet. It is as pressing as it is threatening.
On Tuesday, Hong Kong takes center stage by hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Finance Ministerial Meeting 2026, bringing together financial chiefs from some of the world’s most powerful economies. If the delegates only spend their time debating and formulating terrestrial macroeconomic policy, they would have ignored an issue that becomes more pressing by the day — one that will impact us all in ways most do not even perceive. I mean the global NewSpace economy (the commercial exploitation of LEO in particular). It’s currently worth around $700 billion and is projected to become a multi-trillion dollar behemoth by the middle of the next decade — one that will be at the heart of much of modern life. However, almost the entire global space infrastructure rests on a fragile, increasingly congested, and highly perilous LEO shell that can collapse like overstacked cartons of eggs once the looming tipping point is reached.
The underlying arithmetic and raw statistics are brutal. The current and planned future deployment of commercial satellite mega-constellations is accelerating at an unsustainable rate. Without robust, enforceable, internationally agreed frameworks for space safety, space traffic management, and, increasingly, practical debris-mitigation technologies, the world risks triggering the so-called “Kessler Syndrome”, or a “cascading, catastrophic collapse” of the LEO as a viable environment for placing satellites. It will unfold through a chain reaction of orbital collisions that create a pervasive field of debris from meters to microns in size, where even a centimeter debris particle has the explosive power of a grenade. The LEO could be rendered entirely unusable for generations. If that happens, much of the modern digital economy collapses too. No instantaneous global financial synchronization, no satellite broadband or telephony, no real-time climate monitoring (most remote sensing satellites are in LEO), no cross-border telecommunications, degraded GPS, and severe impacts on supply chains, logistics, disaster response, defense, and myriad other implications too numerous to cover here. This brings us to the core issue that should get concentrated attention at APEC: space sustainability. This is no longer an academic exercise for scientists and engineers; it is a hard-nosed fiduciary requirement that should focus minds at APEC, as the future wealth of nations would be directly impacted.
Hong Kong’s role here can be significant. Under the “one country, two systems” framework, the special administrative region has the legal, financial, regulatory, and scientific architecture to act as a “condensed, connectivity conduit” for this emerging frontier. Hong Kong’s power lies in its role as a world-recognized, respected professional services and governance nexus. The APEC Finance Ministerial Meeting’s focus on digital infrastructure financing must expand to recognize satellites as central to global connectivity. Using this opportunity, Hong Kong can pioneer the tokenization and securitization of orbital assets. Crucially, the city’s sophisticated insurance market can step up. The city has the talent and expertise to develop specialized aerospace underwriting frameworks that penalize bad behavior and reward stewardship. If a commercial operator cannot demonstrate a verifiably robust, end-of-life de-orbiting plan, their insurance premiums should be prohibitively expensive. Conversely, compliant operators should access cheaper capital.
The herd of elephants in the room must be addressed. The space sector is deeply fractured by geopolitical rivalries and self-defeating export controls. At the APEC ministerial table will be seated delegations from the United States, China, and other economies from across the Asia-Pacific — what an opportunity for constructive dialogue and real decisions. Hong Kong’s independent, common-law Judiciary provides a neutral, trusted jurisdiction for space law, contract drafting, IP protection, investment, dispute resolution and arbitration. So, when international groups need a trusted clearinghouse to structure joint ventures or resolve satellite frequency overlaps, the city should be the natural choice. However, policy needs the technical data to back it up.
Civil society must provide the independent, rigorous, scientific scaffolding that governments and markets lack. Space “exploration” must be replaced by space “stewardship”. Hong Kong should create an international space sustainability data center to share orbital assets and debris-tracking information.
Hong Kong can provide the financial and insurance sectors with the high-fidelity risk metrics they desperately need to underwrite the space economy safely. The city already has the talent to execute this, and its world-class research universities and the broader Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area are home to an astonishing concentration of academic and industrial muscle. By linking Hong Kong’s financial acumen with the Greater Bay Area’s manufacturing and artificial intelligence capabilities, a powerful “space fintech” ecosystem can be cultivated to assist with all the above. The next generation of young financial minds attracted to and trained in Hong Kong will treat space and LEO in particular, not as a speculative Wild West, but as a disciplined, sustainable economy.
The APEC Finance Ministerial Meeting is a golden opportunity to alter the current trajectory. APEC’s financial architects should fundamentally understand that preserving the orbital environment is a prerequisite for protecting terrestrial wealth. If we do not act soon and with serious intent, the very technology we rely on to build a sustainable tomorrow on Earth will become the debris that traps us. It is time for Hong Kong and APEC partners to align their “orbits”, secure the sky, and ensure that the NewSpace economy has a sustainable LEO to grow into.
The author is a professor emeritus at the University of Hong Kong, CEO and co-founder of NGO s3plus1.org, and CEO and founder of Feilong Aerospace & Technology Ltd.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
