The picture shows the clean energy heating station of Jinling Villa, Wendeng District, Weihai City, Shandong Province (photo of drone). According to the State Grid Shandong Electric Power Company, in 2020, 358,400 households in Shandong completed the clean heating work of "coal to electricity". In the heating season of 2020, it is estimated that 270,000 tons of standard coal will be saved, 680,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 20,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 0/10,000 tons of nitrogen oxides will be reduced. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Yushe
The Central Economic Work Conference pointed out that it is one of the key tasks to be done next year to do a good job in peak carbon dioxide emission and carbon neutrality. As an important way to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, how to develop green finance with high quality has attracted much attention. Experts said that it is necessary to innovate and develop green finance and give full play to its important role in supporting green recovery. At the same time, raise the standard of green finance to ensure that green projects, green loans, green bonds and projects in the green fund catalogue do not harm the goal of tackling climate change.
The Central Economic Work Conference held a few days ago determined that doing a good job in peak carbon dioxide emission and carbon neutrality is one of the key tasks to be done next year. China's carbon dioxide emissions will peak in 2030 and be carbon neutral in 2060 (hereinafter referred to as the "30.60 target"). The meeting also pointed out that financial support for green development should be increased.
As an important way to achieve carbon neutrality, how should China's green finance work? How to build a green financial standard system with high quality?
The green financial market is developing rapidly.
"Vigorously developing green finance is an inevitable choice to promote the high-quality development of China's economy and an important means to achieve green recovery." Liu Guiping, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, recently said at the China Green Finance Reform and Innovation Seminar held in Huzhou, Zhejiang.
Up to now, the overall quality of China's green financial assets is good, the non-performing rate of green loans is much lower than that of national commercial banks, and there is no default of green bonds. The data shows that by the end of the third quarter of this year, the balance of green loans in China was 1 1.55 trillion yuan, ranking first in the world. At the end of June, the stock of green bonds was 1.2 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world.
Liu Guiping said that in the next step, we should give full play to the important role of green finance in supporting green recovery, constantly improve the financing environment of green industries and green projects and deepen international cooperation in green finance around the tasks of "six stabilities" and "six guarantees". On the one hand, it is necessary to innovate and develop green finance, support the realization of the "30.60 goal", gradually incorporate climate change-related risks into the central bank's policy and prudent management framework, build a high-quality green financial standard system, systematically promote the development of carbon emission rights and carbon financial markets, and accelerate the formation of institutional mechanisms conducive to carbon emission reduction. On the other hand, it is necessary to carry out grass-roots practice of green finance reform and innovation, support qualified areas to take the lead in proposing carbon neutrality goals, encourage pilot areas to actively explore new models of green finance development, promote green finance to support innovative development in renewable energy, green buildings, clean transportation and other fields, and more actively serve national and regional development strategies such as coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta.
Support the realization of "30.60 goal"
The so-called carbon neutrality refers to the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions directly or indirectly generated in a certain period of time, which offsets its own carbon dioxide emissions through afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction, thus achieving "zero emission".
In order to help achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, how should China's green finance operate? Lei Yao, deputy director of the Financial Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, said that since 20 16, China has made remarkable progress in green financial standard system, green digital infrastructure construction, green financial product innovation system and green incentive and restraint mechanism. In order to achieve the "30 60 goal", the People's Bank of China will continue to promote the development of green finance around the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee and the goal of carbon neutrality.
"Guangzhou Carbon Emissions Exchange will provide support for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao investment institutions to participate in the Guangdong carbon market on the basis of the practice of cross-border RMB channel participation in the Guangdong carbon market, and promote Greater Bay Area's carbon dioxide emission peak and carbon neutrality by exploring voluntary emission reduction products such as carbon Pratt & Whitney." Meng Meng, president of Guangzhou Carbon Emissions Exchange, said that Guangdong has made active efforts in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's response to climate change and green financial cooperation. For example, it has established a Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation mechanism for environmental protection and climate change response with Hong Kong, set up a cooperation group, and formulated a Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation plan for environmental protection and climate change response in 2020; We have cooperated with Hong Kong and Macao institutions in environmental information disclosure and carbon labeling. Greater Bay Area Green Finance Alliance was jointly established with Hong Kong and Macao to support the coordinated development of green finance in Greater Bay Area.
Yin Hong, vice president of Modern Finance Research Institute of China Industrial and Commercial Bank, believes that in order to achieve the "30.60 goal", environmental information disclosure of financial institutions is a good starting point. 20 17 12 As the result of the ninth Sino-British economic and financial dialogue, the pilot of climate and environmental information disclosure of Chinese and British financial institutions was launched. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the United Nations Organization for Responsible Investment (UNPRI), as pilot institutions in China and the United Kingdom, respectively, organized and promoted the disclosure of environmental information by pilot financial institutions according to the climate information disclosure framework of the Climate-related Financial Information Disclosure Working Group (TCFD). In the past three years, the pilot has made positive progress, and the number of Chinese participating institutions has increased to 15, covering a variety of financial formats such as banking, securities and insurance, forming a useful experience that can be replicated and popularized.
Building a Green Financial Standard System
2065438+In August 2009, the green financial information management system developed by the People's Bank of China was put into operation in Huzhou. The system integrates the functions of green loan statistical analysis, green credit process monitoring and green financial policy evaluation. To realize the direct information connection between the People's Bank of China and financial institutions. The next step is to take the lead in promoting it in three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta.
According to the relevant personnel of Huzhou Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China, since the system was officially launched, the time limit of data collection frequency has changed from 20 days after each quarter to 1 day after each working day, the statistical labor cost estimation has been reduced by nearly 20%, and the data accuracy has been improved by nearly 10%. Relevant data and information have been initially applied to daily management, statistical analysis and performance evaluation, and achieved remarkable results.
"At present, six sets of green financial related systems 16 have been developed in each experimental area, which effectively solved the problem of green project identification, reduced the information asymmetry in the green financial market and expanded the scope and coverage of green financial services." Liu Guiping said.
Not only has a new breakthrough been made in the construction of green financial digital infrastructure, but a "domestic unity and international integration" green financial standard system is also accelerating. Liu Guiping said that the statistical system of green finance has been gradually improved, and significant progress has been made in formulating a number of green financial standards. The comparative study of green financial standards between China and Europe is about to be completed, which provides an important guarantee for standardizing green financial business, ensuring the sustainability of green financial business and promoting green economic and social development. Some drafts of green financial standards were tried first in the green financial reform and innovation experimental zone, which not only guided the green financial work in the experimental zone, but also effectively improved the quality of setting green financial standards.
Ma Jun, director of the Green Finance Committee of the Chinese Finance Association, suggested that carbon neutrality should be taken as the constraint condition to improve the standards of green finance, and ensure that the items in the green projects, green loans, green bonds and green funds directory do not harm the climate change targets.