The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China profoundly expounded that the harmonious coexistence of man and nature is an important feature of Chinese modernization, put forward the important thesis that "respecting nature, conforming to nature, and protecting nature are the inherent requirements of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way", and made major arrangements to promote green development and promote the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Green finance will play a vital role in comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China and accelerating the modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
Green finance is an important measure to achieve green development, and building a sound green financial system is an inevitable choice to promote green and high-quality development.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has put the construction of ecological civilization in a prominent position in the overall work, and incorporated the construction of ecological civilization into the overall layout of the "five-in-one". We have continued to fight the tough battle of pollution prevention and control, promoted the green and low-carbon transformation of the development mode, improved the ecological environment, and improved the quality of life of the people.
China has generally entered the late stage of industrialization, and the transformation of the economic structure is facing huge challenges in order to actively and steadily achieve the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China is inseparable from strong financial support. Through loans, investment, issuance of bonds and stocks, insurance, carbon finance and other financial products and services, green finance guides social funds into the development of green industries such as environmental protection, energy conservation, clean energy, and clean transportation, reduces environmental pollution, and greatly promotes ecological protection and restoration, green industry development, and economic restructuring. Since the beginning of the 21st century, green finance has attracted more and more attention from international organizations, governments, enterprises and financial institutions, and green financial services have become an important way to promote the development of green industries.
In recent years, China's green finance has developed rapidly, and the green financial system has been continuously improved. Since 2017, China has successively established green finance reform and innovation pilot zones in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guizhou and other places. As of the end of 2023, the balance of green loans in domestic and foreign currencies was 30.08 trillion yuan, and the balance of the domestic green bond market was 1.98 trillion yuan. The national carbon emission trading market has been officially launched and is running smoothly, the premium income and compensation expenditure of green insurance business have grown rapidly, the green investment market has gradually matured, and foreign cooperation in green finance has been steadily promoted.
Develop green finance, promote the realization of ecological, economic and social benefits, and promote high-quality economic and social development. The development of green finance can bring ecological benefits, effectively promote the development of green industrial system and green industrial base, promote the construction of green industrial system, green agriculture system and green service system, improve the ecological environment, and realize the green rise of economic development. Green finance can bring economic benefits, optimize the efficiency of financial resource allocation, and improve the operating efficiency of financial institutions. The development of green finance can also improve investors' awareness of the coordinated development of the environment and the economy, improve the green financing channels of enterprises, and enhance green credit for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The development of green finance to help high-quality economic and social development is promising. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "improve the system of fiscal, tax, financial, investment, price policies and standards to support green development". The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a National Unified Market" clearly put forward "cultivating and developing a unified national ecological and environmental market". It is necessary to focus on promoting the establishment and improvement of the value realization mechanism of ecological products through a unified national environmental rights and interests trading market, guide the transformation of the value of ecological products, give full play to the market price mechanism, use market-oriented means to value and price environmental rights, improve the economic value of resources and the efficiency of resource use, price environmental externalities, and form a direct constraint and incentive mechanism for enterprises.
Green finance will continue to help reduce carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand greenery and grow, give full play to the important role of market mechanisms in the allocation of environmental resources, and continue to promote green and high-quality development.
The author is a lecturer at the Business School of Jinggangshan University