Today, the front page of Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Paper (22 June 2021) featured the article “Green Finance Think Tank in Municipal Administrative Center”, which covers the progress and achievements of IFS in integrating international resources, attracting outstanding talent, facilitating the development of the Municipal Administrative Center and exerting international influence. The full article is reprinted below:

Pooling International Resources and Empowering Beijing’s Green, Low-Carbon Development with Finance

Green Finance Think Tank in Municipal Administrative Center

22 June 2021 | Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Paper

Correspondent： Guan Yiwen 

As a General Pilot Zone for the Expansion and Opening up of the Tertiary Industry in Beijing municipality, Beijing Municipal Administrative Center (Beijing MC) eagerly seizes the “two-zone” construction opportunity to attract leading industries such as business service, cultural tourism and scientific and technological innovation. As a major area of the International Business Service Area of the Beijing Pilot Free Trade Zone, Canal Business District focuses on fields such as wealth management, green finance and fintech. It is now home to over 200 financial businesses and third-party service institutions, including banks and insurance, securities, fund and factoring companies. Among these service institutions, the Institute of Finance and Sustainability (IFS) stands out. The green finance think tank integrates international resources, attracts outstanding talent, facilitates the development of Beijing MC and exerts international influence.

Having staged the “Sustainable Agriculture Green Finance” seminar with the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce, the “Carbon-Neutrality Technologies and Investment Opportunities Seminar” with Hillhouse Academy and the “2021 Annual Meeting on Financing Green Technology” with the Professional Financial Committee of the Expert Committee of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, IFS, headquartered on the 16th floor of World Overseas Chinese Businessmen Centre in Beijing MC, is working tirelessly to begin the research, promotion, platform building and international collaboration of green finance. 

The 500-square-meter office is full of hidden talent. The ESG (environmental, social and governance) Investment Research Center, the Greentech Innovation and Investment Gateway, the Beijing Office of the Secretariat of the Green Investment Principle (GIP) for the Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian headquarters of the International Network of Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S) are all found here under the banner of IFS. Some of the staff from two other research centers subordinate to IFS, namely the Energy and Climate Center and the Center for Financing Nature-based Solutions, also have their office here. “A single thread alone may connect those fated to be together despite the great distances”; the influential industrial-research reports and the gatherings that bring together global big names have made IFS the bond that closely connects Beijing MC with those in the global “green circle” while facilitating urban construction and drawing global attention.

Dr. Ma Jun, founder of the IFS, is a widely recognized pioneer in the green finance industry and has many titles in the fields of green finance and green development, including that of director of the Green Finance Committee of the China Society for Finance and Banking, member of the Expert Committee on National Ecological and Environmental Conservation, co-chair of G20 Sustainable Finance Working Group, co-chair of the Advisory Committee for the GIP for the BRI, special advisor on sustainable finance to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), director of Beijing IFS and chairman and president of Hong Kong Green Finance Association. Dr. Ma was also a member of the Monetary Policy Commission of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and chief economist of the central bank’s research bureau and has led the drafting of the guiding opinions on green finance released by seven Chinese ministries and commissions in 2016. He was also responsible for a series of international collaborations in green finance on behalf of China.

It is understood that IFS offers advice and solutions to Beijing municipality, the state, financial institutions, green businesses and the international community in fields such as green finance, natural capital and financing, low-carbon development and energy transformation and green technology. It is building research and capacity-building platforms and actively strengthening the influence and discourse of Beijing as a green international financial center. Since its foundation in May 2021, IFS has established five research centers and formed professional teams with over 20 full-time and 10 part-time researchers, in addition to creating an expert committee consisting of over two-dozen top national and international experts. IFS has undertaken over three-dozen research tasks and consultation projects from international organizations, the PBOC, Beijing Municipal Bureau of Financial Work, Tongzhou District in Beijing, local governments, financial institutions and green businesses. The institute has released a series of influential research reports and conducted a large amount of consulting research, including the soon-to-be, formally released “Research for Carbon-Neutrality and Green-Finance Roadmaps of Chongqing” performed for Chongqing municipality.

According to Dr. Ma, IFS provided technical support for the application and preparation for the Green Finance Reform Pilot Zone in Beijing. IFS was commissioned by regulatory departments to develop green finance standards and conduct policy research, in addition to offering consultation and capacity-building services to financial institutions and green businesses in Beijing and other places. The institute planned to build upon its ESG Research Center and coordinate the building of an ESG Investment and Financing Center in Beijing, so as to create an ecological circle of green and sustainable investment institutions. It had proposed talent introduction to support Beijing MC to become an international talent center for green and sustainable finance, and was actively bringing in institutions known for their proclivity for greenness. It was also helping ESG investment funds and green finance service institutions to settle in Tongzhou.

The Energy and Climate Center subordinate to the IFS focuses on energy and climate-change policy research. Supported by the low-carbon policy database and system-analysis tools, the center helps decision-makers to devise green, low-carbon development plans that are executable and investable. The center has recently undertaken the research on industrial-emission reduction roadmaps for peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality in many areas including Chongqing. It has designed low-carbon transition plans for areas depending heavily on coal and related industries, in addition to providing consultation and suggestions for the planning of local zero-carbon model areas. Recent work focus of the Center for Financing Nature-based Solutions includes designing innovative financing mechanisms for sustainable forestry and agriculture, researching cross-area ecological compensation for ecological conservation, developing natural carbon sinks and designing a market-trade mechanism for regional ecological quotas.

Supported by the IFS platform, quality resources from around the globe are gathering together fast. As a policy outcome of the London-Beijing Green Technology Investment Gateway proposed at UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue 2019, the Green Technology Research and Investment Promotion Centre (Green Tech Centre) aims to promote the development of budding and maturing green-technology businesses. Last July, IFS and Carbon Trust, a globally renowned British consulting firm, collaborated and established the center at IFS, so as to encourage the popularisation and application of global green, low-carbon technologies in China, in addition to building a platform connecting financial resources with green technologies.

The Green Tech Centre and Hillhouse Institute of Innovation and Industry Studies recently published the research report “Towards 2060 Carbon Neutral: Opportunities and Challenges on the Road to Decarbonization”, which went through the challenges and investment opportunities facing China during the process of achieving carbon neutrality and serves as a reference for investment institutions such as private-equity and venture-capital firms, entrepreneurs and industries. Furthermore, IFS staged the first Annual Meeting on Financing Green Technology in Beijing MC, at which it launched the green technology project bank named “Financing Green Technology Platform”. The platform will focus on connecting green technology projects with equity-investment institutions, in addition to empowering green-technology firms and green-investment institutions through industrial research and an expert database.

Integrating international resources and supporting national strategies are major tasks of IFS. To reflect the inherent requirements of the BRI for sustainable development, the GIP for the BRI, initiated by the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking and the City of London Corporation’s Green Finance Initiative, was included in the list of deliverables of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in 2019. The same August, the first plenary meeting of GIP set up the secretariat, with one chapter in Beijing and one in London. Currently, the GIP Secretariat Beijing Office is located at IFS and is also known as the Green Finance International Collaboration and Research Centre. The center supports the work of the GIP Secretariat Beijing Office and its committees and task forces as well as the development of the green-project bank. It also drives the increased disclosure of environmental and climate information by GIP signatories, assesses the environmental impact of projects and innovates green-finance products. Furthermore, it has launched green finance capacity building for China and other developing countries.

In addition, the Asian headquarters of FC4S have settled in Beijing MC through IFS. As a collaboration network, FC4S connects financial centers across the globe and aims to promote experience exchange and collaboration among international financial centers. It is also driving the expedited development of green and sustainable finance around the world. It is understood that over 36 cities around the globe have joined the network, whose daily operations are supported by the UN Development Programme and UNEP and have its global secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. The collaboration projects between IFS and FC4S will be responsible for launching events planned by both sides, including the popularisation of green finance and related consultation and capacity building in Asia. Supported by related UN bodies, IFS will also research the experience related to the development of international green-finance centers, as well as exploring with FC4S the best practice to drive the construction of an international center for green and sustainable finance in Beijing.

Link to the original article:

 “Green-Finance Think Tank in Municipal Administrative Center” featured on the front page of Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Paper on 22 June 2021 

http://www.bjtzh.gov.cn/bjtz/xxfb/202106/1475153.shtml