(26 May 2018) The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative was invited to speak at the inaugural Global Green Finance Leadership Program in Beijing, China. The six-day program included panel discussions and site visits in Beijing, Hizhou and Shanghai, and was developed to provide a platform for knowledge sharing on best practices and inspiring innovation for scaling up green and sustainable finance. Organizers aimed to generate new ideas to promote green finance and to disseminate practical knowledge and know-how on green and sustainable finance.

“It was extremely important for senior government leaders at the highest level to send a strong policy signal to regulators and market participants on the importance of green finance to the economy. Policy coordination among ministries, development of taxonomies, and information disclosure are also key to success,” said Dr. Ma Jun, Chairman of China’s Green Finance Committee, Co-Chair of G20 Green Finance Study Group, and member of the Central Banks and Supervisors Network on Greening the Financial System. Dr. Ma led the event, which included 120 policy makers, financial regulators and practitioners from over 35 countries.

The SSE initiative speaking on a panel on Green Finance

“Transitioning the world’s economies to a sustainable footing will require innovative new forms of finance and investment,” said Anthony Miller, Coordinator of the SSE initiative. “The SSE works to encourage capital market participants to demonstrate leadership, seize the opportunities that green finance offers, and help the world to transition to the sustainable economies of the future.”

The SSE spoke on a panel titled “Green capital market, ESG, and disclosure”. This panel focused on corporate ESG information, climate risk disclosure, and sustainability indexes. In its presentation, the SSE presented its Green Finance Action Plan, the role of stock exchanges in promoting green finance, including the development of sustainability indices. The SSE’s work on green finance can be found here.

In closing the week-long program, Dr. Ma Jun summarised several key factors for successful building of a green financial system, which included governments sending a strong signal to business and society, the development of green finance associations, networks, and alliances, the allocation of some fiscal and policy resources to catalyze and mobilize private capital, and nurturing innovative capacity in system design and product development to develop and retain talent who understand how green finance works.

The Global Green Finance Leadership Program was co-hosted by the Center for Finance and Development of Tsinghua University, the IFC-supported Sustainable Banking Network (SBN), China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), supported by the Belt and Road Bankers Roundtable and the CFA Institute.