At this stage, the green financial systems of developed countries such as Europe and the United States are relatively mature, with the European Union in particular leading the way. Green finance in developed countries has formed a relatively complete system in terms of legal systems, market entities, and green financial products.
The EU is a pioneer in the green finance track and has a long history of development. At the beginning of this century, the European Union adopted the "Sustainable Development Financing Action Plan" as a guiding document, making regulations on the classification of sustainable activities, sustainable investment funds, sustainability indexes and other aspects.
In 1970, the United States introduced a series of federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, which required existing industries to no longer cause damage to the environment and guided social funds into sustainable industries. The U.S. banking industry also pays attention to the consideration of environmental factors in the business process and provides loan support to green industry enterprises.
The United Kingdom proposed the concept of low-carbon economic development in 2003 and was one of the first countries in the world to implement low-carbon development and designate low-carbon economic concepts. The Climate Change Act and the Loan Guarantee Scheme introduced in 2008 and 2009 further strengthened the top-level design of green finance in the UK. The British government established the Green Investment Bank in 2012 to attract social capital investment through market-based means and promote the UK's green economic transformation.
The opportunity for my country's green finance to officially start was the 2016 G20 Summit, when my country served as the chairman, introduced green finance topics, and included the establishment of a green financial system in my country's "13th Five-Year Plan". Different from the bottom-up green financial development model promoted by financial institutions in some countries in the world, the construction of my country's green financial system is mainly driven by policies.