With the continuous advancement of the "double carbon" goal, my country's development in the field of green finance has shown strong growth momentum and rapid expansion trend.
Data shows that as of the end of 2023, my country's domestic and foreign currency green loans exceeded 30 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 36.5%, ranking first in the world; the stock of green bonds exceeded 3 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of nearly 30%, ranking second in the world.
In order to respond to severe challenges in the fields of climate change and ecological environment and promote high-quality economic development, finance needs to play a greater role and improve the pertinence and effectiveness of supporting green and low-carbon transformation. Based on this, the People's Bank of China and other seven departments, based on previous guidance, summarized and learned from my country's successful practices and international experience, and issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening Financial Support for Green and Low-Carbon Development"(hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"). This is an important part of the "1+N" policy system for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. It is a top-level institutional design to guide the construction of the green financial system in the new era and new stage. It is conducive to the in-depth advancement of the construction of my country's green financial system and the development of Chinese characteristics. The road to financial development.
However, some experts pointed out that my country's green finance development is also facing the challenge of insufficient product innovation. At present, my country's green financial products are mainly green loans and green bonds. In recent years, although green funds, green insurance and other products have developed, their proportion in green finance is only about 5%. The green financial product supply system can easily lead to concentration of risks in the banking system. Moreover, due to relatively low risk appetite, indirect financing is difficult to provide sufficient financial support for some early green innovation practices.
However, the top-level design of the Guiding Opinions pays special attention to the development of green financial products, proposing to "promote the construction of the carbon emissions trading market", enrich the financial products and trading methods linked to carbon emissions, and gradually expand the scope of trading entities suitable for my country's carbon market development.
Green insurance is an important part of green finance. In recent years, the pace of green insurance innovation in my country has continued to accelerate. Green insurances with different functions such as new energy vehicle insurance, environmental pollution liability insurance, and green manufacturing system insurance are increasingly entering production and life, strengthening environmental risk management and ecological protection, promoting the development of green industries and the application of new green technology achievements. Play an active role in other aspects. In 2023, green insurance business compensation expenditure will be 121.5 billion yuan.
In conjunction with the "Guiding Opinions", the State Financial Supervision and Administration subsequently issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Green Insurance", which set out the overall requirements for the high-quality development of green insurance, key areas for the development of green insurance protection, and green investment in insurance funds. More comprehensive and detailed requirements and measures have been put forward for key tasks, green insurance operation and management capabilities, and job guarantees to further improve the top-level design of green insurance development. It points out the direction for the insurance business to strengthen supply-side structural reforms and seize the opportunity period of comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.
In May this year, at the press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Pei Xiaofei, spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, pointed out that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will strengthen cooperation with the financial sector, promote the improvement of the environmental factor market and green finance standard system, and accelerate the improvement of policies and systems conducive to green finance. Develop policies and systems, study and establish a joint promotion mechanism for financial services for beautiful China construction projects.
As top-level design continues to be clarified and various effective means continue to be released, green finance will increasingly be on the fast lane, helping build a beautiful China where man and nature coexist harmoniously.