Where is the focus of green finance development in 2024? Lan Hong of Chinese University exclusively interprets the relevant points of the government work report
This year's government work report has mentioned green finance many times, so where is the focus of green finance development this year? How to promote the development of new productive forces through green finance? What is the relationship between green finance and science and technology finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, digital finance, etc.? Regarding the above questions, the reporter of Zhonghuan Daily conducted an exclusive interview with Lan Hong, deputy director of the Ecological Finance Center of Chinese University.
Blue Rainbow
China Environment News: After listening to this year's government work report, how do you feel?
Blue Rainbow:In this year's government work report, a large number of pages are related to green and low-carbon development, pollution control, ecological economy, etc., and ecological environmental protection is placed in a high position. At the same time, I found that compared with previous years, this year's government work report mentions green finance many times. For example, in the section on ecology and environment, the report stresses: "Improve fiscal, tax, financial, investment, price policies and related market-oriented mechanisms to support green development." In the financial part, it is emphasized that "vigorously develop science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance." "In previous years, the content related to green finance only appeared in one section, but this year is different. It can be seen that the state has made great efforts to promote the development of green finance. As a scholar of ecology and green finance, I am very excited.
China Environment News: This year's government work report proposes to "improve fiscal, tax, financial, investment, price policies and related market-oriented mechanisms to support green development." "In your opinion, what is the focus of developing green finance this year?
Blue Rainbow:In the fields of ecological and environmental governance, carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and green and low-carbon economy, many projects have some risks and low returns. This year, it is possible to further improve the green guarantee fund, green insurance and other systems, so that these green financial products can become a powerful tool to prevent risks and promote the development of green finance.
Improving fiscal, tax, financial, investment, and pricing policies and related market-oriented mechanisms to support green development will help green and low-carbon projects such as new energy to obtain more financial support and promote the development of these fields. At present, China's new energy industry has become a green economic growth point internally and a green trade growth point externally. Although the central bank has set up carbon emission reduction support tools, financial support is still insufficient, and the existing support tools need to be further improved.
At the same time, this year's government work report emphasizes that the government will issue long-term government bonds to support the construction of green infrastructure, which will provide financial guarantee for green development and will also drive a boom in the issuance of local green government bonds.
Green finance and green finance need to cooperate with each other to play a better role, and there will be more actions in green fiscal and tax policies this year. For example, this year's government work report proposes to build a beautiful China pilot zone and create a green and low-carbon development highland. To carry out these tasks, green fiscal and tax policies need to play a greater role in leveraging to help the marketization of ecological environment and green and low-carbon projects, and at the same time, guide green investment through preferential policies of green finance.
The realization of the value of ecological products is also a priority. At present, the ecological value generated in green development cannot be fully marketized. The core of the realization of the value of ecological products is the price mechanism, and to improve the price mechanism and promote ecological compensation, policy support from fiscal to financial needs to be improved. Relevant price policy research and preferential price policies to support green development should be better done in the future.
As of the end of 2023, the balance of green loans in local and foreign currencies was 30.08 trillion yuan, ranking first in the world, and the scale of green bond issuance exceeded one trillion yuan. However, we see that there are still certain structural problems. For example, in the field of green finance, green credit accounts for more than 95%, and equity financing accounts for only 3%. The amount of self-owned funds is too small, which makes it difficult for some green SMEs to obtain green loans. Investing financial funds in green projects will effectively solve the problem of too little self-owned funds. In 2024, there may be a greater breakthrough in leveraging green finance and green finance to solve the structural problems of green finance.
China Environment News: This year's government work report proposes to "vigorously develop science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, pension finance, and digital finance." In your opinion, how can these "five articles" work together?
Blue Rainbow:In the process of promoting, these "five articles" are not completely separate, but mutually reinforcing. The development of green inclusive finance will be one of the priorities of green finance development this year. At present, the scale of green finance has exceeded 30 trillion yuan, but the funds are mainly invested in state-owned enterprises and large enterprises, and some small and medium-sized enterprises are seriously underfunded. On the one hand, for small and medium-sized enterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises lack their own funds and it is difficult to obtain green credit. On the other hand, green certification is not cost-effective for small projects. To issue green loans to low-carbon enterprises and projects, green certification is required to clarify the carbon reduction of enterprises and projects. For large enterprises, green finance enjoys more preferential treatments, and they will look for third-party certification. For small and medium-sized businesses, the cost of certification is prohibitive. For a project with a loan of 1 million yuan for small and medium-sized enterprises, the green discount is only 10,000-20,000 yuan, and the green certification fee is as high as nearly 10,000 yuan. Therefore, at present, green finance has not played its due role in the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises. How to obtain financial support for small and medium-sized enterprises with green development requires the linkage of fiscal and taxation, financial investment and price policies. This year, the central bank is likely to give more attention to green financial inclusion.
Digital finance will also play an important role in the development of green finance. For example, in response to the problem of high green certification fees for small and medium-sized enterprises, the Quzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China has established a big data network for green and low-carbon finance by using digital finance, which has effectively reduced the cost of promoting green finance among small and medium-sized enterprises. This initiative has also been promoted in other places, and places such as Guizhou are also using digital finance to solve technical difficulties in the promotion of green and inclusive finance.
Pension finance and green finance are also closely related. On the one hand, the development of the pension industry inevitably involves the carbon emissions of buildings, and in the context of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the pension industry often adopts green buildings. On the other hand, rural health care in the pension industry is also part of the green ecological industry, so it is also the object of green finance.
The development of green finance to this day must rely on the development of science and technology finance, such as the management of the green project library, the accounting and monitoring of emission reductions of green and low-carbon projects, etc. At the same time, in the context of "dual carbon", science and technology are now moving towards green technology, and green technology finance is also a large part of green finance.
China Environment News: How can green finance play a role in the development of new quality productivity?
Blue Rainbow:There is a great correlation between new productivity and green finance. Green economy and beautiful economy are an important part of the new quality of productivity. For example, the "new three" of new productivity - electric manned vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and solar cells are themselves green and low-carbon, and are the objects of green financial support. The "new three" account for a large proportion of the entire export trade, and exports will exceed the trillion yuan mark for the first time in 2023. Chinese enterprises not only export products and equipment, but also set up branches abroad to provide technical services such as environmental protection and new energy construction and operation, which are important components of new quality productivity. These green and low-carbon industries with cutting-edge technological characteristics have enabled China not only to obtain export benefits, solve the problem of insufficient domestic effective demand, but also promote the development of domestic industrial chains.
At present, affected by the shortage of fossil energy and the climate crisis, the international demand for new energy is strong. On September 9-10, 2023, the 18th G20 Leaders' Summit adopted the G20 New Delhi Summit Declaration, agreeing to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030. China's new energy technology is at the forefront of the world, and low-carbon green technology is in line with the international trend, so in 2024, cross-border green finance will receive great attention, and it will develop in tandem with domestic green finance, help green enterprises and technologies with international competitiveness rush to the world, obtain better income return, drive domestic economic development, and support the better development of new quality productivity.
