1 Research report2021-01-20editionTSINGHUAUNIVERSITYNATIONALINSTITUTEOFFINANCIALRESEARCHGreen Finance in China: Overview, Experience andOutlookResearchCenterforGreenFinanceDevelopmentCHENGLin 1,CHENYunhan,WUYueAbstractRecently, China has made significant advancement in the developmentof green financial system through the introduction of green financialstandards, disclosure requirements and a series of measures to sparkinnovation in green financial products. This report aims to provide anoverview of green finance in China, its origin, development, status quoand outlook, with a focus on the market and relevant market players.The Chinese experience in developing green finance, through policycoordination, incentives and standard setting, can become a referenceforotheremergingeconomiesthatseektodeveloptheirdomesticgreenfinancemarket 2.1ChengLinisDeputyDirectoroftheResearchCenterforGreenFinanceDevelopment.ChenYunhanandWuYueareAnalystsattheResearchCenterforGreenFinanceDevelopment.2ThisreportispreparedbytheResearchCenterforGreenFinanceDevelopmentwithsupportfromGIZ. 2 研 究 报 告（ 2021年 第 1 期 总 第 99期 ） 2021年 1 月 20日清华大学国家金融研究院中国绿色金融发展的历程、经验及展望绿色金融发展研究中心程 琳 3、 陈 韵 涵 、 吴 越【 摘 要 】 近 年 来 ， 我 国 通 过 出 台 绿 色 金 融 标 准 、 披 露 要 求 、 激 励 绿 色金 融 产 品 创 新 等 一 系 列 措 施 ， 逐 渐 建 立 了 国 内 绿 色 金 融 市 场 体 系 。 本报 告 将 从 绿 色 金 融 市 场 和 市 场 参 与 者 的 角 度 出 发 ， 对 我 国 绿 色 金 融 的起 源 、 发 展 、 现 状 和 前 景 进 行 梳 理 ， 希 望 我 国 绿 色 金 融 在 政 策 协 调 、政 策 激 励 和 标 准 制 定 方 面 的 经 验 为 其 他 有 意 发 展 绿 色 金 融 市 场 的 新 兴经 济 体 提 供 有 益 参 考 4。 3 程 琳 是 绿 色 金 融 发 展 研 究 中 心 副 主 任 ， 陈 韵 涵 和 吴 越 是 绿 色 金 融 发 展 研 究 中 心 研究 人 员 。4 本 报 告 的 编 写 得 到 了 德 国 国 际 合 作 机 构 （ GIZ） 的 支 持 。 3 ContentsForeword.41.OverviewofGreenFinanceinChina.61.1 Green Financial Products and Market.91.2 Green Finance and Ecological Civilization.171.3 Policy Framework and Stakeholders.182.NationalTaxonomiesforGreenFinancialAssets.302.1 Guidelines for Green Credits and Statistics.302.2 Catalogue of Green Bond Endorsed Projects.332.3 Green Industry Guidance Catalogue.342.4 Harmonization of the standards.35 3.PilotProjectsandRegulatoryPoliciesforGreenFinance.373.1 Pilot Projects and Key Milestones for Green Finance.373.2 Regulatory and Incentive Policies for Green Finance.424.InternationalInitiativesandCollaboration.494.1 Co-chairing the G20 Green Finance Study Group.494.2 Participating in the NGFS as a Founding Member.504.3 Greening Investments in the Belt and Road.514.4 Bilateral and Multilateral Cooperation.524.5 Capacity Building for Green Finance.535.ConclusionandOutlook.555.1 Lessons for mainstreaming green finance.555.2 Future priorities for scaling up green finance.57 Annex 1: The Framework of the Chinese Green Financial System.60Annex 2: Supporting polices to Green Finance.62Annex 3: Green Financial Products and Services in Pilot Zones.68Annex 4: Green finance regulations/initiatives that apply to Chinese outboundinvestment/BRI.71 4 ForewordIn recent years, China made significant progress in developing its greenfinancial system through a series of measures, such as introducing greenfinance standards (such as taxonomies) and disclosure requirements,innovating green financial products, and launching regional pilot programs.As of now, China has established one of the worlds largest green financialmarkets, with the outstanding balance of green loans exceeding RMB10.6tnin2019 and the total issuance of green bonds amounting to over RMB 1.1tnbetween2016and2019.Significant environmental and climate benefits have been achieved throughtheallocationofpublicandprivatecapitaltoavastnumberofgreenprojectswith themes on environmental remediation, renewable energies, energyefficiency, and green transportation. Also, Chinas regional pilot programshave demonstrated clearly that the deployment of green finance could boost economic and job growth at the same time while delivering cleaner air andwaterandreducingcarbonemissions.China has played a leading role in the area of green and sustainable financeandactivelypromotedinternationalcollaboration.Since2016,Chinahasco-chaired the G20 Green Finance Study Group (GFSG), co-founded theNetwork for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), launched the GreenInvestment Principles (GIP) with international partners, initiated the GlobalGreen Finance Leadership Program (GFLP), actively participated in theInternational Platform for Sustainable Finance (IPSF), and developedvariousbilateralcollaborativemechanismswiththeUK,FranceandEurope.Chinas experience is highly relevant to other countries, especially otherdeveloping countries. Over the past years, several hundred green financespecialists and officials from over 50 countries have visited China under theGFLP to exchange knowledge and best practices on green finance. Following these knowledge exchange programs; Mongolia established thecountrys first green finance taxonomy with technical assistance fromTsinghuaGreenFinanceCenter andChina GreenFinanceCommittee.Someother countries like Kazakhstan and Pakistan are also exploring similarmeasures.Despite its significant progress, China still has a long way to go in meetingthe vast and rapidly growing financing and investment demand from its 5 green economy. China will need to develop on four aspects: a morecomplete set of green finance standards that cover all green financialproducts; mandatory requirements for environmental and climateinformation disclosure; stronger incentives for green investments; andinstitutional capacity to analyze environmental and climate risks in aforward-looking manner. Chinese President Xi Jingpings recent pledge thatChina would achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 will be a huge boost toboth supplyof and demandfor greenfinance inChina andwillbe translatedinto more specific actions by the financial regulators and financialinstitutions.Tsinghua Green Finance Center was in close collaboration with the BCETeam at GIZ China in preparation of this report, which aims to provide anoverview of Chinas efforts since 2016 in developing its domestic greenfinancialsystemand some of theinternational initiativestowhich China hasmade significant contributions. We believe that some of the lessons and experiences from China - as summarized in this report - especially in thearea of policy coordination, incentives and standards, are highly valuable toothercountriesthatintendtodeveloptheirowngreenfinancialmarkets. 6 1. Overview of Green Finance in ChinaThe earliest labeled green financial products in China were green loans,which date back to 2012 when China Banking Regulatory Commission(CBRC) issuedthe guidelinesfor greenloans5 andlaterstatisticalsystem6 in2013. Prior to this initiative, environmental issues like air pollution, waterpollution, and land contamination had already been a national concern forboth the public and the government. The Ministry of EnvironmentalProtection (now Ministry of Environment and Ecology, MEE) found itnecessary to approach these issues from the financial side, in addition totheirregulationsonpreventingandcontrollingpollutions.Theguidelinesforgreen loans learned from the International Finance Corporations practicesandmethodologiesonsustainablebanking.In 2014, air pollution was getting worse in urban China, especially aroundBeijing and Tianjin in Northern China, and the tightened environmentalregulationshadbeenineffective.Someeconomistsandexpertsfoundintheir studies that the root cause for the severe environmental pollution originatedin the economic structure (i.e. its reliance on high-emission heavy industry,road transport, and energy mix). To solve the environmental issueseffectively, a mid-to-long term systemic approach would have to be taken,including to transform into service and consumption driven industries, tobuild railways and trains to replace road transport, and, most importantly, toreduce coal in the energy mix and increase the share of clean/renewableenergy.The blueprint was clear; however, the big question was how much does thistransformationcostandwheredoesthemoneycouldcomefrom.InthebookThe Economics of Air Pollution in China: Achieving Better and CleanerGrowth, Dr. Ma Jun calculated that the financing demand for greentransformation in China would be around RMB 4 Trillion (app. USD 563billion) annually between 2016 and 2020, and that the public could onlyprovide 10% to 15% of the funds needed. Most of the financing gap would havetobefilledbytheprivatesector.5 7 Inspired by international green bonds issuance and green projects financeexperience, the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) thought China could applysimilar systems and therefore established the Green Finance Committeeunder the China Society for Financing and Banking. The committee wasmandated to lead the research on the role of financial markets and thepossibility of establishing a comprehensive green financial market. TheCommittee was chaired by Dr. Ma Jun, then Chief Economist of theResearch Bureau of the PBOC. In 2014, the Committee provided a set ofrecommendationstopromotegreenfinance,mostofwhichwereacceptedbythe top Chinese decision makers in the Central Party Committee (CPC) andthe State Council, and were included in the Integrated Reform Plan forPromoting Ecological Progress 7, released in 2015. In article 45 of thisreform plan, “establishing a green financial system” was raisedas a solutionto promote ecological progress and a mandate to the PBOC forimplementation.InDecember2015,theCommitteereleasedtheChinaGreenBondEndorsedProject Catalogue (2015)8, the taxonomy used for green bonds issued inChinas interbank market by financial institutions (mainly banks) and instock exchanges by listed companies. In 2016, China-based institutionsissued 58 labeled green bonds in both domestic (53) and overseas (5)markets, with a total value of RMB 240 Billion (app. USD 34.5 Billion),accounting for more than 40% of the global issuance (USD 81 Billion).China became the world largest green bond market almost overnight. Sincethen, China has remained the top player in the world green bond market,with its financial institutions expanding their green bond issuances globally,especially in Europe. As of the end of 2019, the total value of green bonds issued by Chinese institutions, since 206, exceeds RMB 1.1 Trillion (USD155Billion).With these green loans and green bonds issued, enormous environmentalbenefits have been realized through the green projects theyve supported.Statistics from CBRC9 showed that by end of June 2017, projects andservices supported by green loans have abated 491 million tons of carbon7 8 8 emission, which equates to the total emissions of 70,000 taxis running inBeijing for 336 years. At the same time, the Non-Performing Loans (NPL)ratioofthese greenloans stoodat0.37%,muchlower thanthe averagelevelof 1.69%. By the end of 2019, the outstanding volume from 21 major bankstotaled more than RMB 10 Trillion (USD 1.4 Trillion), accounting for morethan10%oftotalloansontheirbalancesheet.As the environmental benefits became visible and the air quality in majorChinese cities improved, both the government and the financial sectorrealized that green finance was contributing to these positive outcomes andshould be further encouraged. Against this background, the PBOC workedwith six other ministries and jointly released theGuidelinesforEstablishingthe Green Financial System 10 in 2016, when China was the G20 President.This adds a more comprehensive policy framework to the existing mandatefor green finance in China. Many corresponding policies and products wereintroduced subsequently, including the environmental disclosurerequirement, green insurance, green funds, and the pilot zone for promotinggreenfinanceinlocalgovernments.China has built an inducive environment for international collaboration ingreenfinancebysupportingtheinternationalclimateagendaandadheringtoits commitments in reducing carbon emissions. The main causes of climatechange - human activities, overreliance on fossil fuels, etc. - are also themain contributors to Chinas environmental issues. When addressing airpollution issues, China is actually also addressing climate change. In turn,any best practices for climate change mitigation and adaptation can also bebeneficialtoaddressingenvironmentalissuesinChina.Therefore,Chinahasbeen very active in international collaboration in both climate change and environmental issues, such as the Network for Greening the FinancialSystem (NGFS), the International Platform for Sustainable Finance (IPSF),ParisAgreement,UNSustainableDevelopmentGoals(SDGs),ISO,etc.Against this backdrop, there is tremendous potential for China, Germany,and the EU to work together to tackle common challenges. This report willpresentin more detail progress andupdates to the green financial markets inChina, the ecological civilization, as well as the policy framework and itsstakeholders. The latter part of this report will dig more deeply on othertopicsandissues,includinginternationalcollaboration. 10 9 1.1 Green Financial Products and MarketThis section of the report provides an overview of the development of greenfinancialproductsandmarketsinChina,includinggreencredits/loans,greenbonds,greeninsurance,greenfunds,andotheremergingproductstosupportgreenandsustainableprojectsorservices.Green CreditsSince the introduction of the Guidelines for Green Credits in 2012 and thestatistical system in 2013, green credits have been growing very fast amongbanking institutions. Statistics from the CBIRC show that the outstandingbalance of green credits from the largest 21 banks 11 in China more thandoubled from RMB 4.85 Trillion (USD 675 Billion) in June 2013 to morethan 10.6 Trillion (USD 1.5 Trillion) in 2019. With an average annualgrowthrateof14%,greencreditsgrowmuchfasterthantheaverageloans.In the meantime, the quality of green credits remains high despite their fastgrowth. From 2013 to 2018, the NPL ratio of green credits in these bankswere 0.32%, 0.20%, 0.42%, 0.49%, 0.37% and 0.42%, respectively, wellbelowtheNPLratioofallloansinthesameperiod.12Table 1.1 Green credit balance of 21 largest commercial banks in China(Trillion RMB) 11ItisimportanttonotethattheCBIRCisonlyaskingthesebankstoreportstatisticsongreencreditsastheyaccountforover80%ofallChinesebanksassetsandaremorecapableofimplementingtheseguidelines.The21largestbanks,alsodefinedas21nationalcommercialbanks,arelistedbelow:ChinaDevelopmentBank,theExport-ImportBankofChina,AgriculturalDevelopmentBankofChina,IndustrialandCommercialBankofChina,AgriculturalBankofChina,BankofChina,ChinaConstructionBank,BankofCommunications,ChinaCiticBank,ChinaEverbrightBank,HuaxiaBank,ChinaGuangfaBank,PingAnBank,ChinaMerchantsBank,ShanghaiPudongDevelopmentBank,IndustrialBank,ChinaMinshengBank,HengfengBank,ChinaZheshangBank,ChinaBohaiBank,andPostalSavingsBankofChina.Othersmallerandregionalbanksarealsoopentodotheirownstatisticsbutarenotincludedinthenationaldata. 12WangXinetal.,ProgressReportonChinasGreenFinanceDevelopmentRBeijing:ChinaFinancialPublishingHouse.2019:76 10 Source:CBIRCAmong the 21 banks, Chi