Reporters Ma Fangye and Wang Siwen
In 2021, the beginning of the "14th Five-Year Plan", a tough battle aimed at "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" has begun. On March 15 this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed at the ninth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Commission that achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is a broad and profound economic and social systemic change, and it is necessary to incorporate carbon peaking and carbon neutrality into the overall layout of ecological civilization construction, take out the momentum of grasping iron and traces, and achieve the goal of carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 as scheduled.
With the heavy responsibility ahead, we need to forge ahead. How can capital markets support carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals? What important role should capital markets play? How to further improve the green finance policies or systems related to the capital market? Recently, Ma Jianfeng, vice president of the China Securities Financial Research Institute, expressed his latest views on the above issues in an interview with the Securities Daily reporter.
Ma Jianfeng pointed out in an interview that the implementation of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals is an important strategic decision of the Party Central Committee and the State Council to coordinate the two overall situations at home and abroad, and scientifically deal with climate change, and provides direction guidance for China's high-quality economic and social development. At the same time, serving the strategic deployment of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality is also one of the focuses of financial work this year and in the coming period.
He further said: "Since the issuance of the Guiding Opinions on Building a Green Financial System in 2016, the capital market has given full play to the role of optimizing resource allocation and strengthening risk management, and actively supported green economic activities such as environmental improvement, climate change response, and resource conservation and efficient utilization. The goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality requires the capital market to continue to improve institutional arrangements and better support the development of low-carbon economy. ”
The capital market can be from at least four aspects
Contribute to the "30·60" emission reduction target
At present, at least 120 countries and regions around the world have proposed carbon neutrality targets. As a responsible major country, China has proposed the "30.60" target, promising to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The United States, the world's second-largest carbon emitter, has now returned to the Paris Agreement. All of this means that the world is on the fast track of a low-carbon transition.
In this regard, Ma Jianfeng believes that the capital market can at least help the "30·60" goal from four aspects.
The first is to broaden the financing channels for green and low-carbon industries. He said that during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, green and low-carbon industries such as new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection have raised a total of 1.9 trillion yuan in the capital market through initial offerings, refinancing, listing, and issuance of corporate bonds. By the end of 2020, there will be 496 listed companies in green and low-carbon industries such as new energy, new materials, energy conservation and environmental protection, with a total market value of 7.5 trillion yuan, which is about 6 times and 3 times that of listed companies in high-energy-consuming industries such as steel, cement, and electrolytic aluminum.
The second is to urge listed companies to fulfill the main responsibility of green and low-carbon development. Ma Jianfeng said that 1452 listed companies disclosed environmental information in the 2019 annual report, which is nearly 4 times the number of disclosures in the 2016 annual report, and the results are gratifying.
The third is to actively guide securities fund operating institutions to participate in the green and low-carbon transformation. By the end of 2020, 52 asset owners and asset managers in China have become signatories of the United Nations Responsible Investment Initiative (UNPRI), with an asset management scale of about 2 trillion yuan. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, a total of 70 securities companies underwrote green bond products (including asset securitization products) of 268.2 billion yuan.
The fourth is to promote the construction of the carbon futures market and explore the development of futures varieties that serve green and low-carbon development.
In addition, the Securities Daily reporter learned from a number of financial institutions that at present, exploring derivative products and businesses such as carbon futures, setting up carbon market-related funds, in the capital market and credit support, or guiding capital market investment to practice the investment philosophy of ESG, and giving play to the environmental governance role of leading enterprises have gradually become the consensus of the capital market to help do a good job in carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.
Guide investors to practice ESG investment
The four overseas experiences are worth learning
Compared with the hard constraints of achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, there are still some problems in the capital market in infrastructure construction, investment and financing matching, incentive and constraint mechanisms.
Ma Jianfeng told the Securities Daily reporter frankly, "For example, the direct financing system lacks obvious restrictions on the allocation of high-carbon assets, carbon emission information has not yet been included in the environmental information disclosure requirements of listed companies, investors' green and low-carbon investment awareness and climate risk management capabilities are still insufficient, there is a lack of incentive and constraint mechanism for green and low-carbon investment, and the market foundation for carbon futures market construction is not yet perfect." These problems need to be improved and gradually solved. ”
However, Ma Jianfeng continued to analyze that there are many experiences abroad in supporting the development of a green and low-carbon economy that are worth learning. "There are four main aspects," he said, "one is to strictly limit investment in projects that do not produce major climate benefits; the other is to promote companies to strengthen the disclosure of climate-related information, guiding them to identify the impact of climate risks on the company from the perspective of their own development goals, strategies and risk management; the third is to formulate ESG investment policies or focus on due diligence management codes for asset managers and asset owners to guide investors to practice ESG investment; the fourth is to promote the development of the carbon futures market and introduce standardized carbon futures. Promote the formation of effective prices in the carbon emission trading market, and strengthen the emission reduction effect of the carbon market. ”
The proposal will address climate change requirements
Incorporated into the ESG credit framework for listed companies
In order to better implement the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, Ma Jianfeng also suggested further improving the relevant policies and systems of the capital market on the basis of learning from international experience.
He told reporters that the first is to consider further increasing support for green and low-carbon industries and gradually restricting the financing of "high energy consumption and high emission" projects; the second is to explore the establishment and improvement of incentive mechanisms for green and low-carbon investment from the aspects of investment ratio and investment projects; the third is to incorporate the requirements for climate change into the ESG information disclosure system of listed companies as soon as possible, for example, take the lead in increasing the climate information disclosure requirements for "two high" industries and financial listed companies; fourth, accelerate the construction of carbon emission futures markets. Actively promote the listing of carbon emissions futures; fifth, strengthen coordination with other financial regulatory departments and environmental protection departments, explore financial policies to limit the allocation of high-carbon assets, improve the catalogue of green bond support projects, and establish a cross-departmental supervision and coordination mechanism for carbon emission rights.