The financial industry seizes the opportunity to "point green into gold"
To support green and low-carbon development, the financial industry has a lot to do.
At the same time, green development has also brought huge development opportunities to the financial industry.
Some institutions estimate that the global new energy industry's R&D funding needs will increase by 1 trillion US dollars each year, which will bring unprecedented huge opportunities to the financial industry.
Experts in the industry believe that, on the one hand, while accelerating supply-side structural reforms, the financial industry is based on the original intention of serving the real economy. It should seize the opportunities of green development, better serve the requirements of high-quality development, and realize the soundness of finance and economy. Cycle; on the other hand, it is necessary to realize that the realization of a green and low-carbon transition must be carried out step by step, so as to avoid the steep curve of financial “one size fits all” and not affect people's livelihood and the normal operation of the economy.
Green finance is developing rapidly
In recent years, my country's green finance development has achieved remarkable results.
According to data from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, at the end of 2020, the green credit balance of 21 major banks reached 11.6 trillion yuan. In addition, environmental pollution liability insurance has covered more than 20 high environmental risk industries such as heavy metals, petrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
The rapid development of green finance is attributable to the acceleration of the overall economic and social transition to green development.
Ye Yanfei, the first-level inspector of the Policy Research Bureau of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, believes that in recent years, in the process of accelerating new urbanization, the development of low-carbon transportation, green buildings, digitalization, and intelligent infrastructure has achieved remarkable results.
Wind power, photovoltaics and other clean energy industries lead the world, the number of new energy vehicles represented by electric vehicles is the largest in the world, the development of energy storage power stations and advanced manufacturing industries is accelerating, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries are accelerating, and a series of energy-saving and emission-reducing technologies are added. Technology has been widely used, a number of smart cities that effectively reduce carbon emissions, and the continuous implementation of green and low-carbon industries have provided a broad market space for the development of green finance.
More and more financial institutions regard green finance as an important strategic development direction.
For example, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China continues to increase the supply of green finance, and the scale of green loans ranks first among commercial banks; the Agricultural Bank of China issued a green finance development plan to comprehensively build an internal green financial system; China Construction Bank proposed a "four-wheel drive" in 2017 Promote the development of green finance and use mechanism optimization to guarantee green credit business; In the first half of this year, the Bank of China formulated the "14th Five-Year Plan for Green Finance of the Bank of China" to provide green projects in terms of assessment, authorization, scale, price, and economic capital. Policy tilt.
In addition to large state-owned banks, joint-stock commercial banks and some city commercial banks have also accelerated their pace of exploration.
On November 3, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, together with the Green Finance Research Center of Fudan University, Shanghai Environmental Energy Exchange, etc., discussed specific measures for financial institutions to help carbon neutrality, and released the "Blue Book on Financial Boosting Carbon Neutral Development and Achievement"; Bank of Beijing and Beijing The Green Exchange signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement and established the first "green" sub-branch in the Beijing area-Bank of Beijing Tongzhou Green Sub-branch.
Power from the financial supply side
At present, my country's green credit scale ranks first in the world, with overall good asset quality, and its NPL ratio is much lower than the overall NPL level of various loans in the same period. The environmental benefits of green credit are gradually emerging.
However, industry experts also pointed out that my country's green credit accounts for more than 90% of green finance, and other financial products, including bond products, are relatively insufficient.
It must be soberly recognized that the development of green finance is far from meeting actual needs, and the practical results are still far from the expectations of all parties.
Zhang Qingsong, President of the Agricultural Bank of China, believes that for banks and other financial institutions, efforts can be made from the following four aspects: improve the relevant credit policies for the realization of product value, provide comprehensive financial services, promote the maturity of the market, and explore more financial support. model.
Zhang Qingsong said that credit funds are the most direct and powerful support.
Commercial banks should introduce special industry credit policies around key areas, promote the organic integration of the green credit indicator system and credit industry policies, and support differentiated measures.
In addition, many green financial products have the characteristics of large investment scale, long construction period, and strong public welfare attributes. Financial institutions must give full play to the role of the market and strengthen cooperation with the government.
For example, jointly promote the realization of the dual-carbon goal through the joint establishment of "ecological product right confirmation + green credit + risk compensation", "public product + green fund", and green PPP financing.
Bank of China President Liu Jin believes that corporate finance should play a key role in the main battlefield of industrial green and low-carbon transformation.
Financial institutions should further enrich product supply, improve service accuracy, actively develop financial products such as energy efficiency credit, environmental rights, carbon neutral bonds, etc., to meet the diversified needs of green development with green equity investment, green M&A funds, and green trust plans. Participate deeply in carbon market transactions, launch financial products such as carbon futures, carbon options, and carbon swaps, and develop financial services such as carbon pledge, carbon repurchase, and carbon custody.
In addition to banking financial institutions, various financial institutions must also be guided to participate in the development of green finance.
Xiao Yuanqi, vice chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said that the insurance industry plays a unique role in the process of financial support for green and low-carbon development.
Unlike other financial formats, insurance can directly mitigate and hedge against climate risks and mitigate the physical and transformational impacts of climate change.
At the same time, the risk adjustment function of insurance can realize the reconfiguration of costs among market entities, guide individual enterprises and the government to adjust their strategic goals, continue to align energy conservation and emission reduction with the "dual carbon" goal, mitigate the impact of climate risks, and smooth out economic fluctuations. .
In addition, the long term structure of insurance and diversified investment objectives can provide long-term and stable financial support for the green industry.
Xiao Yuanqi believes that the current insurance coverage rate for climate risk is relatively low. Only 30% of the losses caused by global climate disasters in the past 10 years have been covered by insurance, and the remaining gap is about US$1.7 trillion. The actual demand in the future will be even greater. .
Raise awareness of risk prevention
In the development of green finance, finding green assets has become a difficult point for financial institutions.
Ye Yanfei suggested that when financial institutions develop green assets, they should pay more attention to the four aspects of "pollution reduction", "carbon reduction", "greening" and "disaster prevention".
In terms of "pollution reduction", pollution control in large river basins requires a large amount of investment, as well as pollution control and various emission reductions in the industrial field.
Ye Yanfei analyzed that my country’s high-carbon products account for a high proportion of the world, and the production of more high-carbon products will inevitably cause pollution, and it is necessary to increase efforts to prevent and control pollution; in the field of “carbon reduction”, the high-carbon industry is adopting digital, Intelligent and green transformations accelerate the reduction of carbon intensity and require a large amount of credit support; in terms of "greening", the financial industry can do a lot of work in supporting ecological protection and ecological restoration, such as financial support for major projects and major projects At this time, we must pay attention to biodiversity, and some of the biodiversity can be attempted to be solved through commercialization; in the field of "disaster prevention", the losses caused by extreme weather events are huge, and disaster prevention construction should be strengthened, especially the construction of insurance. Wait.
Industry experts believe that the realization of a green and low-carbon transition is a gradual process. While advancing in an orderly manner, it is necessary to guard against related risks.
Chen Yulu, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, said recently that the central bank encourages qualified financial institutions to study and put forward carbon neutrality targets, but in the process of implementing the roadmap, there must be a flexible correction mechanism to prevent the superposition of policy measures or "movements." Carbon reduction affects people's livelihood and the normal operation of the economy.
For traditional high-carbon industries, the financial industry should not simply exclude them from the scope of services, but should develop targeted products to meet the funding needs of updating technology, equipment, talents and other elements in the low-carbon transformation process, and help achieve orderly Transformation.
Xiao Yuanqi said that what should be supported for the coal power industry is to avoid "one size fits all" and to ensure the basic stability of the industrial chain and supply chain.
The risks associated with green finance also require all parties to be vigilant.
Chen Yaqin, assistant to the general manager of the Green Finance Department of Industrial Bank, reminded that banks especially need to distinguish whether the underlying assets are really "green" and that they need to be wary of pseudo-green technology and pseudo-green finance in the industry.
In the opinion of industry experts, the use of artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies can improve the macro-prudential and micro-supervision capabilities of green finance and prevent the risk of green credit and green bond defaults.
Our reporter Lu Min