China Emphasizes Green Development and Financial Cooperation with the UK

China's Ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, delivered a keynote speech at the Net-Zero Finance Innovation Conference during the City of London's "City Week" in the UK. He highlighted China's commitment to high-quality development, accelerating green and low-carbon transformation, and actively protecting the ecological environment. China's green finance has a strong momentum of development, with a balance of green loans in local and foreign currencies reaching 40.61 trillion yuan as of the first quarter of this year.

Key Takeaways:

• China is a firm practitioner and important contributor to green development, with a focus on high-quality development, accelerating the green and low-carbon transition, and actively protecting the ecological environment.
• China's green finance emphasizes top-level design and has a strong momentum of development, with a balance of green loans in local and foreign currencies reaching 40.61 trillion yuan as of the first quarter of this year.
• China's green finance has issued 236 new green bonds this year with a total scale of 411 billion yuan, and the types and scale of green insurance have also increased.
• China and the UK have complementary strengths in green finance and there is great potential for cooperation, with potential for leverage on their complementary advantages and expanding green financial cooperation.
• China highly appreciates the contributions made by foreign-funded enterprises to China and welcomes companies from all countries, including the UK, to invest and start businesses in China.
• The UK should treat Chinese companies in a fair, just, and non-discriminatory manner, with clear, transparent, consistent, pragmatic, and rational policies that do not draw ideological lines in the business field.

Statistics:

• China's green loans in local and foreign currencies reached 40.61 trillion yuan as of the first quarter of this year.
• China issued 236 new green bonds this year with a total scale of 411 billion yuan.
• China has provided a total of 46.9 trillion yuan in insurance coverage as of August last year.
• China's non-fossil energy power generation accounts for nearly 40% of total power generation.
• Renewable energy installed capacity accounts for about 57.3% of total installed capacity.
• China added 198 gigawatts of photovoltaic power generation capacity and 46 gigawatts of wind power generation capacity in the first five months of this year.

Sources:

• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China
• Global Finance
• UK Department of Business and Trade
• City of London Corporation
• British Finance Association