As a powerful tool to support green and low-carbon development, green finance has become an important tool to support the green development of countries and regions.
On March 7, the “Daily Economic News” reporter learned that Li Minbin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and co-CEO of the Bank of East Asia, submitted a proposal to focus on promoting green finance and contributing to the realization of the “dual carbon” goal.
He said that my country’s green finance development has been at the forefront of the world, but it needs to be further improved in terms of standard systems, carbon finance market development, and green finance risk management.
Green finance standards to be unified
Li Minbin believes that there are several major problems in the development of green finance in my country at present.Including green financial standards to be unified, carbon financial market to be mature, risk prevention and control to be improved, etc.
Specifically, the current classification standards for green finance in my country include the green credit standards issued by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the different green bond standards issued by the People’s Bank of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Some local governments have also formulated their own relevant green standards.
“There are certain differences in different standards, such as whether the clean utilization of fossil energy and nuclear power belong to the green category, and there are different judgments. This is not conducive to protecting the rights and interests of market participants, and increases the difficulty of supervision.” Li Minbin mentioned that my country’s green financial standard system and There are also differences in the international mainstream standards, which will affect the future integration of the international market.
In terms of carbon emissions trading, Li Minbin pointed out that the online trading of China’s carbon market was officially launched in July last year, becoming the world‘s largest carbon market covering greenhouse gas emissions, but it is still in its infancy. , there is only spot trading, carbon financial derivatives are yet to be developed, institutional investors are temporarily unable to participate, and there is little linkage with other overseas carbon markets. How my country’s carbon trading market will connect with the international market in the future has become an urgent problem that needs to be studied and solved.
In addition, with the rapid development of green finance in my country, there have also been many cases of “pseudo-green” and “greenwashing” (in the name of a friendly environment, but in fact doing the opposite), posing major risks to financial institutions and investors , the green project information disclosure mechanism needs to be improved.
Expand the scale of the carbon trading market
In response to the above problems, Li Minbin put forward three suggestions around green financial standards, carbon financial market development, and sound risk control.
First, accelerate the unification of green financial standards. In February this year, the People’s Bank of China and other departments jointly issued the “14th Five-Year Development Plan for Financial Standardization”, which clearly stated that it is necessary to speed up the improvement of the green financial standard system. Li Minbin suggested to accelerate the unification of the green financial standard system on this basis, so that investors can understand whether the project or product is truly “green”, so as to guide green investment more effectively. At the same time, clarify the relationship between national standards and local standards to avoid confusion.
In addition, Li Minbin suggested using Hong Kong, China to integrate with international green finance standards. “In fact, the “Opinions on Financial Support for the Construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area” issued by the People’s Bank of The integration of green enterprise and project identification, green financial statistics and other standards will allow more enterprises in the region to use the platform to finance and certify green projects, introduce international funds, and enhance the breadth and depth of global integration.”
Second, expand the carbon market to pave the way for international integration. Li Minbin suggested to expand the scope of the market coverage and enrich the trading products, and to incorporate key emission source industries such as steel, chemical industry, and cement into the national carbon market in an orderly manner as soon as possible, and allow institutional investors and individual investors to enter in a timely manner;At the same time, promote the innovation of derivative products, explore carbon forwards, carbon options, carbon bonds, carbon insurance, etc., and expand the scale of the carbon trading market.
He believes that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has the conditions and ability to become a pilot window for the national carbon market to go international. Hong Kong Stock Exchange signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangzhou Futures Exchange in August last year. In the future, the two parties will focus on serving the country’s goal of “carbon peaking and carbon neutrality”, and jointly study the possibility of product cooperation in domestic and overseas markets. “If it can be achieved, it is expected to use existing channels such as ‘Bond Connect’ and ‘Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Stock Connect’ to build a regional carbon trading market in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In the future, my country will expand its participation in the international carbon market to accumulate experience and enhance its international attractiveness and influence.”
Third, use financial technology to improve risk control. Li Minbin believes that to fundamentally solve the problems of “false green”, “false green” and “greenwashing” and prevent credit risks of green projects, the key is to establish a full-process information disclosure system.
In this regard, he suggested assisting companies to accurately account for carbon emissions through technical research, and establish a complete data information sharing platform to integrate environmental penalties, corporate pollution permits, green project feasibility study reports, credit data and other information. At the same time, strengthen cooperation with professional third-party green evaluation agencies, improve the green financing review mechanism, and track the progress of green projects in real time.
“In addition, financial technology can be used to help financial institutions prevent potential project risks as soon as possible through real-time data collection, analysis and decision-making, and risk early warning.” Li Minbin said.
Source of cover image: Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Long
