New Space for Sino-EU Green Finance Cooperation
China and EU shall promote economic resurgence based on the global consensus of green recovery，further promote the coordination of green finance standards and advance cooperation of overseas green investment.
Climate change and environmental degradation pose existential threats to all human beings，resource-saving economy and sustainable development are the imperative ways to cope with such global challenges. As the leaders in global green finance field，China and the EU have long sought sustainable development through long-term cooperation and have jointly tackled climate change and environmental issues. By sorting out the current situations and issues of the green finance cooperation between China and the EU，here in this article，we put forward some thoughts onit.
Solid Foundation for Green Finance Cooperation between China and the EU
High-level dialogue platform promotes the establishment of Sino-EU partnership. The two Sides reached their consensus on coping with climate change issues as early as 2005，and established the Sino-EU Partnership on Climate Change with a platform for high-level dialogue through the launch of the Sino-EU Joint Declaration on Climate Change. The partnership was further strengthened with the landing of several other joint statements，including the Sino-EU Joint Statement on Dialogue and Cooperation on Climate Change in 2010，the Sino-EU Joint Statement on Climate Change in 2015，and the Sino-EU Leaders’ joint Statement on Climate Change and Clean Energy in 2018. In April 2021，President Xi Jinping attended a China-France-Germany leaders’ video summit with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Beijing. The leaders of the three countries exchanged in-depth views on cooperation in coping with climate change，China-Europe relations，anti-pandemic cooperation，and major international and regional issues，and made coping with climate change an important pillar in China-Europe cooperation.
Participating in the multilateral cooperation platforms for green finance. The two Sides have been actively participating in multilateral cooperation platforms such as the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)，the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)，the G20 Sustainable Finance Study Group and the International Platform for Sustainable Finance (IPSF)，promoting the global green finance development.Among them，IPSF was jointly launched by the relevant departments of Argentina，Canada，Chile，India，Kenya and Morocco in October 2019，with China and the EU took the lead. This platform aims to promote private capital’s investment in environmentally sustainable projects，and provide a multilateral dialogue mechanism for policy makers on sustainable financial regulatory measures to help investors to identify sustainable investment opportunities that can truly contribute to achieving climate and environmental goals. There are currently 17 member countries in IPSF，covering 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions，50% of the world’s population and 55% of global GDP. Under the guidance of the platform，the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road Development was jointly issued by a number of institutions，with the Green Finance Professional Committee of the China Finance Society and the City of London took the lead，which laid the foundation for the international cooperation and standard formulation of green finance.
Promoting the convergence of global green finance standards. Global green bond market grew substantially since 2016. In order to facilitate the cross-border flow of green capital，it is necessary to promote the convergence of global green bond standards. In March 2017，the People’s Bank of China and the European Investment Bank jointly issued a statement to propose a green finance initiative and adopt the definition of green standards of both markets. The Green Finance Professional Committee of the China Finance Society and the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched a study on the “translation” mechanism of green bond standards the same year，with its results written into the two editions of white paper - Searching for a Common Language of Green Finance，which were released successively at the UN Climate Conference in 2017 and 2018. From June 2019 to March 2020，the EU has released a series of policy documents on green finance，including the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy and the Usability Guide: EU Green Bond Standard，setting up systematic basic standards for green finance. China also spares no effort to promote the formulation of the relevant standards. In April 2021，Catalogue of Supported Green Bond Projects (2021 version) was jointly released by the People’s Bank of China，the Committee of the Development and Reform Commission and the China Securities Regulatory Commission. The new version of Catalogue gives consideration to international mainstream standards，eliminates certain c