A team from China’s central bank is in London this week seeking advice from British regulators and bankers on how to securitize China’s 8 trillion yuan ($1.26 trillion) of green loans for environmentally friendly projects for global investment.
China`s reform and opening up witnessed a "treatment after pollution" problem and learned its lesson from it. The country now vowed to not pursue economic growth at the expense of the environment - one lesson that China also wants to share with the countries joining in the Belt and Road Initiative (B&R).
Development of green finance is a priority for China and China is now the world`s largest green bond market. However, the lack of clear definitions in some markets and the lack of comparability of different definitions in different markets are barriers to future growth of the green finance market and green capital flows, said Ma Jun.
Experts from around the world attended the 2017 International Green Finance Forum in Beijing Tuesday, at which they discussed how to make green finance mainstream around the globe to help deal with climate change.
China and the United Kingdom are supporting the establishment of an investor alliance to further encourage financial flows into environmentally friendly energy and infrastructure projects within the area covered by the Belt and Road Initiative, China Daily has learned.
Now that the domestic and international community has reached a policy consensus on green financing, "a more arduous task will be capacity building at various levels", said Ma, who is also head of the Green Finance Committee of the China Society for Finance and Banking.
China`s green financial market has been growing rapidly in recent years, with the country becoming the largest green bond market in 2016.
With regional rivals breathing down its neck in the race to be Asia`s financial services doyen, Hong Kong is sparing no effort in the contest for another crown - in green finance.
China is poised to pilot green financing reform in its latest effort to honor commitments on addressing climate change, as decided at the Wednesday executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
As China strives to protect its ecological integrity, the financial sector is coming to the aid to contain pollution and help advance the industrial transformation.
The central bank announced measures on Friday to support the establishment of five green finance pilot zones, a move to help upgrade the industrial structure and honor commitments under the framework of the Paris climate accord.
The State Council, China`s Cabinet, recently announced it is setting up pilot zones for green finance reform and innovations.
On June 1, 2017, US President Donald Trump announced his country`s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change. Not surprisingly, in his White House speech, he referred to China many times as an excuse for the US pullout. He said that the Paris Agreement was unfair to the US, and that he would begin negotiations to re-enter the agreement or an entirely new deal on terms more beneficial to the US.
China announced it would set up the Xiongan New Area in northern Hebei province on April 1, as part of measures to advance the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The central government said that the concept of green development will also be emphasized during the whole process of design and construction of the area.
A central bank official on Saturday said green financing must be improved as the country seeks greener and more sustainable growth.
China will play a paramount role in the global green-bond market as the country needs the financing channel to provide capital for environmental improvement projects, analysts said.
More types of participants in the market, such as wider range of emitters with different levels of emission demands and technologies, will make the carbon trading market in China more inclusive and more active.
China has to realize its goal of environmental protection in the shortest time possible. In the future, the competitiveness and impact of the China model also need to be embodied to a greater extent by a blue sky.
China will begin annual evaluations of the ecological progress made by provincial, city and county governments starting in 2017, which will facilitate policymakers` pursuit of green growth.
China has made great achievements in its endeavor for environmental sustainability over the past decade, and it can inspire developing nations to move on the right course.