Source: Economic Daily

The picture shows the clean energy heating station in Jinling Mountain Villa, Wendeng District, Weihai City, Shandong Province (photo of drone). According to the State Grid Shandong Electric Power Company, in 22, Shandong completed 358,4 households' "coal to electricity" clean heating work. In the heating season in 22, it is estimated that 27, tons of standard coal will be saved, 68, tons of carbon dioxide, 2, tons of sulfur dioxide and 1, tons of nitrogen oxides will be reduced. Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhu Zheng photo

The Central Economic Work Conference pointed out that doing a good job in peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality is one of the key tasks to be done next year. 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, improve the green financial standards to ensure that the projects in the catalogue of green projects, green loans, green bonds and green funds do not harm the goal of tackling climate change.

The Central Economic Work Conference held recently determined that peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality should be one of the key tasks to be done next year. China's carbon dioxide emissions will reach the peak by 23 and achieve carbon neutrality by 26 (hereinafter referred to as the "3.6 goal"). 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 exert its strength? How to build a green financial standard system with high quality?

Rapid growth of green financial market

"Vigorously developing green finance is an inevitable choice to promote high-quality economic development in China and an important means to achieve green recovery." Liu Guiping, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, said at the China Green Finance Reform and Innovation Seminar recently held in Huzhou, Zhejiang.

Up to now, the quality of China's green financial assets is good as a whole, the NPL ratio of green loans is far lower than that of commercial banks nationwide, and there is no default case of green bonds. The data shows that by the end of the third quarter of this year, the balance of China's green loans was 11.55 trillion yuan, ranking first in the world in terms of stock scale; At the end of June, the stock of green bonds was 1.2 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world.

Liu Guiping said that the next step is to give full play to the important role of green finance in supporting green recovery, continuously improve the financing environment of green industries and green projects and deepen international cooperation in green finance around the tasks of "six stability" and "six guarantees". On the one hand, it is necessary to innovate and develop green finance, support the realization of the "3.6 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 regions to take the lead in proposing the goal of carbon neutrality, encourage pilot areas to actively explore new modes of green finance development, promote green finance to support innovative development in renewable energy, green buildings, clean transportation and other fields, and play a more active role in serving 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 the "3.6 goal"

So-called carbon neutrality, that is, in a certain period of time, the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions directly or indirectly generated will offset its own carbon dioxide emissions through afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction, so as to achieve "zero emission".

to help achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, how should China's green finance exert its strength? Lei Yao, deputy director of the Financial Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, said that since 216, 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 "3 6 goal", the People's Bank of China will focus on the goal of carbon neutrality and continue to promote the development of green finance around the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee.

"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, and explore voluntary emission reduction products such as carbon Pratt & Whitney as the starting point to promote Greater Bay Area peak carbon dioxide emissions and carbon neutrality." 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, a Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation mechanism on environmental protection and climate change response was established with Hong Kong, and a cooperation group was set up to formulate a Guangdong-Hong Kong cooperation plan on environmental protection and climate change response in 22; Cooperative research has been carried out with Hong Kong and Macao institutions in environmental information disclosure and carbon labeling. Together with Hong Kong and Macao, Greater Bay Area Green Finance Alliance was established to provide support for the coordinated development of green finance in Greater Bay Area.

Yin Hong, vice president of Modern Finance Research Institute of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, believes that environmental information disclosure of financial institutions is a good starting point to achieve the "3.6 goal". In December 217, as the result of the ninth China-UK 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 United Nations Responsible Investment Principles Organization (UNPRI) are the pilot institutions in China and the UK respectively, and organize and promote the pilot financial institutions to disclose environmental information 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 banks, securities, insurance and other financial formats, and has formed useful experiences that can be replicated and popularized.

Building a green financial standard system

In August 219, the green financial information management system organized by the People's Bank of China was put into operation in Huzhou. The system integrates many functions, such as green loan statistical analysis, green credit process supervision, green financial policy evaluation, etc., and realizes 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 2 days after each quarter to one day after each working day, the statistical labor cost estimate has been reduced by nearly 2%, and the data accuracy has been improved by nearly 1%. Relevant data information has been initially applied to daily management, statistical analysis and performance evaluation, and obvious results have been achieved.

"At present, 16 systems related to green finance 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 digital infrastructure for green finance, but a standard system of "domestic unification and international integration" is also being accelerated. Liu Guiping said that the statistical system of green finance has been gradually improved, and significant progress has been made in the formulation of a number of green financial standards. The comparative study of China-EU green financial standards is about to be completed, which provides an important guarantee for standardizing green financial business, ensuring green financial business sustainability and promoting green economic and social development. Some draft 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 formulating green financial standards.

Ma Jun, director of the Green Finance Committee of China Finance Association, suggested that carbon neutrality should be taken as the constraint condition, and green financial standards should be improved, so as to ensure that the items in the catalogue of green projects, green loans, green bonds and green funds do not harm the goal of tackling climate change.