The Paulson Institute, in partnership with China’s newly launched Green Finance Committee, held the second in a series of seminars around green finance for clean technology in China. The aim of this initiative is to explore innovative financing vehicles to support the Chinese government’s ambitious plans to expand environmental protection and clean up polluted industry, in line with its goals for continuing economic growth and promoting urban sustainability. The next round of discussions is tentatively scheduled for October.
China will need to spend approximately $1 trillion annually for the next 4-6 years to meet its environmental targets, according to the People’s Bank of China, but the government can only cover approximately 15% of those costs. The rest must be met by private or public-private financing. The Paulson Institute is working with firms such as Warburg Pincus, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as experts including Daniel Poneman, former deputy secretary of energy and a senior fellow of the Paulson Institute, and David Sandalow, former under secretary of energy and the inaugural fellow at the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, to provide counsel on how the Chinese government can meet its goals.
Ma Jun of the People’s Bank of China, China’s central bank, chairs the newly created Green Finance Committee, which brings together China’s public and private sectors to explore viable options in the war against pollution. The Committee has 85 members representing Chinese financial institutions, clean energy companies, private equity companies and sovereign funds. Altogether, its membership represents 65% of China’s financial assets at a value of approximately $3 trillion.