On April 24, 2021, the Special Seminar “New Development Stage: Beginning and Outlook” of the 13^th Anniversary Annual Meeting of the China Finance 40 Forum was held. Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Finance and Sustainability, summarised the international experience in financing carbon neutrality and its lessons for China in eight aspects: 

First is the formulation of the standards defining green and sustainable finance, of which the “Do No Significant Harm”-principle of the EU is worth learning from;

Second is the proper performance of environmental- and climate-risk analysis, and regulatory departments should develop a set of standardized environmental- and climate-risk analysis methods and frameworks;

Third is the strengthening of information management and disclosure related to climate, particularly carbon footprints;

Fourth is the calculation and disclosure of the exposure of brown assets;

Fifth is the introduction of financial products linked to carbon footprints by financial institutions;

Sixth is that institutions should focus on promoting green transition financial products;

Seventh is that asset owners should allow the greening of assets to play a promotional role; and

Eighth is that financial institutions should voluntarily achieve carbon neutrality and actively serve as social role models.