ESG

Wang Yao, professor and director general of the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) at Beijing-based Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), has won international fame not only for her outstanding green finance research, but also for the prominent role she has played in promoting green finance development in China. Wang started research on green finance while working in the banking sector at the start of the millennium. There, she gained first-hand experience of how green finance worked in the real world and why it was urgently needed in China.

Huzhou city was chosen by the central Chinese government in June 2017 as “a pilot green finance reform and innovation zone”. The city quickly took a top-down approach to accelerating the development of green finance, which has proved to very effective.

China Chengxin Credit Management, incorporated in Beijing in 1992, is China’s largest credit rating agency. It has also established itself as a leading domestic green finance verification agency.

In China’s green finance sector, Ernst & Young is an admired player because of its position as the largest green finance verifier and its role in promoting sustainable green finance development with expertise and innovative services.

ICBC was not only the largest issuer of green bonds overseas among the Chinese banks last year, but also a clear leader in promoting the development of green finance outside China.

With the robust growth of the green finance sector in China, local financial institutions and their regulators need to improve the collection and analysis of data on the environmental benefits of green finance projects.

Industrial Bank was the largest issuer of green bonds among Chinese banks in 2018, domestically and abroad. Its guidelines and standards set out for its own green bond issues have also won recognition from international agencies.

Bank of Huzhou was established in 1997 in the eponymous economically vibrant, medium-sized city in east China’s Zhejiang province. With total assets of Rmb52 billion ($7.5 billion) at the end of 2018, it is a small bank by Chinese standards. Yet it has emerged as a leader (at least among the numerous regional commercial banks in China) on multiple fronts in green finance.

Industrial Bank is a pioneer in China’s green finance sector. It started making green loans in 2006 and was the first Chinese bank to adopt the Equator Principles, an internationally recognized, risk-management framework for financial institutions to determine, assess and manage environmental and social risks in projects.