June 2021 | Sustainable Finance Featured News

Author:CASVI

Mr. Weihua Ma, The Executive Chairman of CASVI, Attended UNDP SDG Impact Steering Group Fourth Conference

On the evening of May 24th, the UNDP SDG Impact Steering Group (UNDP SDG Impact Steering Group, hereinafter referred to as the “Steering Group”) held its fourth online conference. UN officials such as the UNDP Administrator and Steering Group Chairman Achim Steiner, UNDP China Representative Bai Yating, UNDP Policy and Program Support Bureau Director Xu Haoliang, UNDP Sustainable Development Goals Impact Project Director Fabienne Michau attended the meeting. Mr. Ma Weihua, the executive chairman of CASVI attended the meeting remotely, and Bai Hong, the secretary-general CASVI, accompanied President Ma to join the meeting.

The impact project team of the United Nations Development Program (hereinafter referred to as UNDP) at this meeting reported the latest progress of the current SDG impact projects with the steering group, shared the project’s future strategic goals and work plan, and held in-depth discussion with the steering group on how to achieve the goals. In this meeting, UNDP hopes to gain in-depth feedback from the steering group on the current progress of the SDG Impact Projects and to effectively combine multidimensional resources to carry out the next step.

Mr. Ma highly appreciated the work done by UNDP in product development and expressed ardent expectations for the ‘enterprise version’ of the SDG impact standard to be released in June. Mr. Ma said that after the pandemic, China has gained a deeper understanding of sustainable development and impact investment. The pandemic has aroused Chinese people’s self-reflection, and the Chinese government has begun to actively call for sustainable development in recent years.

At the meeting, Mr. Ma also stated that he would actively promote the implementation of the SDG Impact Standards and related products in China. Consequently, he put forward three suggestions:

1. Integrate the UN standards with the government policies, and positively influence a broader market with these hybrid policies.

2. The SDG impact project should cooperate with Chinese local groups and promote the project through training and other related methods.

3. Strengthen the linkages with universities to influence young entrepreneurs and investors in China, so that future capital flows will concentrate on sustainable development goals.

Carbon Neutralization | The Way to Achieve "Zero Carbon Emission" for Industrial Parks

Industrial parks are the core for the development of industrial enterprises, and their carbon emission can reach 31% of the country's total. Therefore, they have become the key to reduce emission under the carbon neutrality goal. The low-carbon transformation of Chinese industrial parks can be divided into four types: circular economy industrial parks, eco industrial parks, low-carbon industrial parks, and zero carbon emission demonstration zones.

The "Zero Carbon Emission" industrial park needs to consider following aspects:

· Zero-carbon emission energy: it refers to energy that does not increase carbon dioxide emissions during production and use.

· Zero-carbon emission building: it refers to buidlings which can operate independently, and all energy consumption is supported by renewable energy generated by site

· Zero-carbon emission transportation: it refers to the electrification of transportation with renewable energy vehicles as the core, at the same time encouraging public transportation and shared trip;

· CCUS: it refers to Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage which are the new development trend of CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology.

1. The origin of the Zero-Carbon Emission industrial park

Industrial parks are the core for the development of industrial enterprises and the main carrier for China's industrial transformation and upgrading. Through aggregation and integration of producation elements, industrial parks can increase the intensity of industrialization, scale advantages, and optimize functional layout to put more emphasis on industrial characteristics, and further improve market competitiveness. The project of industrial parks started in 1979; there are now more than 15,000 industrial parks, contributing more than 30% to the economy. At the same time, as energy consumption industry accounted for more than 60% of the country's total, the carbon emission of industrial parks reached about 31% of the country's total emission. As a result, industrial park has become the key to reduce carbon emission under the goal of carbon neutrality.

The transformation of China's low-carbon industrial park can be divided into four types:

Circular Economy Industrial Park: Simulate the ecosystem of producer-consumer-decomposer cycle and establish an industrial symbiosis network of the "industrial chain" to achieve the optimal use of material and energy resources.

Eco Industrial Park: Through the exchange of material, energy, and information, a network is established to benefit all. As a result, there won't be waste to the outside world which can coordinate the progress of economy, society and environment.

Low-carbon Industrial Park: With the goal of reducing carbon emission intensity, the development path is from industry, energy, infrastructure to management. It is supported by low-carbon technology innovation and application which also enhance the park’s carbon management capabilities.

Zero Carbon Emission Demonstration Zone: The regional carbon emission is approaching zero with the help of economic development and ecological civilization. The economic growth is driven by emerging low-carbon industries whereas the energy consumption is supported by near-zero carbon energy. The development of transportation should be supported by smart and low-carbon energy, and the balance between carbon source and carbon sink will be realized (net zero carbon emission).

Near-zero carbon emission is stricter than low-carbon emission which emphasizes the total carbon emission rather than carbon emission intensity (the carbon emission per unit of GDP). However, compared with “zero carbon emission”, near-zero carbon emission allows offsets such as the "carbon sink" mechanism which means the carbon reduction or the carbon sink is close to zero. In other words, a zero-carbon emission industrial park means no carbon emission in energy generation, construction, industry, and transportation on the premise of no carbon sinks. Therefore, the zero-carbon emission industrial park is stricter, and even much stricter than the requirments of carbon neutrality goal.

2. Overview of the Zero Carbon Emission Industrial Park

For industrial parks, their carbon emission mainly include two types:

One is direct emission, which is generated from energy activities (industry, construction, and transportation) within the park, such as greenhouse gas emission from industrial processes, fuel combustion, waste treatment, etc.

The other is indirect emission, which is generated from purchased secondary energy, including electricity, heating/cooling and other energy consumption. Therefore, the core of achieving zero carbon emission is integrating industrial parks, electrifying industrial processes, and transforming the heavy dependence on fossil fuels.

Guangdong Zhuangyuan Valley has implemented the concept of "intensive use of land, comprehensive use of space" in its land planning. At the same time, many green technologies have been adopted including energy-consumption cloud platform, solar power generation system, clean energy equipment, evaporative cooling facilities, electric vehicles, energy-saving centralized water supply system, water circulation system, and rainwater collection systems, etc. By 2020, its renewable energy can cover about 60% of the electricity consumption in the area. At present, companies such as Amazon, JD.com, Suning.com, Jiuxian.com, Jabil Electronics, etc. have settled in the park with a occupancy rate of over 95%.

Carbonstop's RMB 50 Million Series A was Led by Hillhouse Capital and Matrix Partners China

Chinese first carbon emissions management startup Carbonstop has raised RMB 50 million in Series A funding which was led by Hillhouse Capital and Matrix Partners China. Zuo Lingye from Matrix Partners China said: "As China proposes to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, circular economy related industries are rapidly growing: clean energy, efficiency improvement, renewable resources, carbon management, etc. Matrix Partners China has also established a circular economy team to systematically invest in these directions.

The Central Bank Plans to Launch Carbon Reduction Tools

On May 11, the Central Bank released a report on China's monetary policy for the first quarter of 2021. The bank's carbon emission reduction tool will be launched to support qualified financial institutions to provide preferential interest rates for projects with significant carbon emission reduction. It will also support green and low-carbon development and facilitate to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.

Huawei Announced its New Ecosystem Strategy

Huawei ECO 2021 was held in Shenzhen, May 17, 2021. Huawei announced its new ecosystem strategy, which is at the core of "zero carbon emission" plan. The company will also change four aspects of the zero carbon emission concerning service offerings, long-lasting evolution of business solutions, partnership with other companies and talent discovery. Different solutions like zero-emission power generation, zeron-emission data hub, zero-emission stations, and zero-emission transporation will be widely used in the future.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment Published Further Rules for Carbon Emission Trading

Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has made further regulations on the registration, trading, and settlement activities of carbon emission to protect rights and interests of all participants in the carbon emission trading market which followed the "Regulations on Carbon Emission Trading (Trial)" published in January, 2021. According to new regulations, the "price per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent" is used as the unit of measurement. The minimum change in the declared volume of trading is "1 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent" and the minimum change in the declared price is measured as 0.01 RMB. The trading institution shall set different rates for trading methods and adjust them depending on market risks.

Ant Group released the ‘2020 Sustainability Report’

Ant Group released the ‘2020 Sustainability Report’, and confirmed the theme of "Digital Responsibility and Green Development" for the first time. The report disclosed that in 2020, Ant Group continued to explore better solutions for social development via technology, including supporting Hangzhou to develop the country’s first health code with normalized pandemic. In addition, Ant Group helped expand the use of financial services via technology. According to the report data, as of the end of 2020, the online commercial bank has supported more than 35 million small and micro enterprises, and 80% of them received operational loan support for the first time. In October 2020, Ant Group was rated A in the ESG rating of the international authoritative index compilation agency MSCI (MSCI), in which the performance of "financial service accessibility" is in the leading position of the industry.

Shanghai promotes management agencies to carry out carbon accounting

Recently, the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government issued the "Several Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Shanghai Global Asset Management Center." Among them, suggestions on the green industry include: increasing green investments; developing green stock indexes, green bond indexes and related investment products; carrying out environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information disclosure, strengthening the research and development of ESG products; promoting carbon accounting in asset management institutions.

The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region submits a notice to increase the borrowing limit of the government green bond program.

The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region made a notice to the Legislative Council on May 26th that it intends to submit two resolutions in accordance with the Borrowing Ordinance to increase the borrowing limit of the government bond program and the government green bond program, and promote the sustainable development of the local bond market. One of the resolutions aims to increase the borrowing limit of the government's green bond program from the current HK$100 billion to HK$200 billion.

The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Xu Zhengyu said: “The Government Bond Program and the Government Green Bond Program have been playing an important role in promoting the development of the Hong Kong bond market through regular issuance of institutional bonds, retail bonds and green bonds. Under the Government Green Bond Program, we have successfully launched green bonds worth 3.5 billion US dollars through two issuances. We will expand the coverage of the government's green bond program so that the raised funds can cover more types of green projects and allow the government to further develop the green bonds market to support Hong Kong’s low-carbon transition, and consolidate Hong Kong’s position as a green financial hub in the region."

The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Bond Program was established in 2009. Its policy objective is to promote the sustainable development of the Hong Kong bond market through systematic issuance of government bonds. The Government Green Bond Program was established in 2018, and its policy objective is to promote the development of green finance in Hong Kong.

Article classification: Alliance News 机构动态