Green Finance Forum 1st Annual Meeting Held in Beijing on March 28-29

The Green Finance Forum will be held in Beijing on March 28-29, 2009 with the theme “Carbon Finance Platform during the Great Change”. The Green Finance Forum is a standing forum sponsored by the Beijing Financial Service Leading Group Office organized by the Beijing Environmental Exchange. The green finance forum aims to establish an important platform in China to advance sustainable finance and develop as a low carbon society. Through this platform, sustainable finance concepts and practices can be popularized to China’s political circle, financial circle, business circle and academic circle. These concepts and practices can then take root in China, drive on the transformation of China’s economic development mode and thus ultimately realize the goal of developing a low carbon society in China.

The essence of the low carbon economy is essentially the same idea as the concept of scientific and rational approaches to development advocated by the government. The core of scientific and rational approaches to development also indicates that while maintaining rapid economic growth, resource consumption and the environmental price of development should be reduced, ultimately realizing a resource-effective and environmentally-friendly society. Outside of China, such a development mode is generally referred to as a low carbon economy or low carbon society.

To get the best of both worlds, a change in thought and a great deal of perseverance is needed. In the short run, these two policies may conflict with each other, but in the long run, the alignment of the two will lay down solid and stable foundations for a new round of economic growth and prosperity. Premier Wen Jiabao said in an interview by the Financial Times in London on February 1, “we support the fight against climate change and the development of a green economy. We think that the green economy is a new area of economic growth during the current financial crisis.

In order to realize the double goals of ending the recession and sustaining low carbon, CDM and a mechanism for ecological compensation are effective breakthrough points. The question of how to bring CDM and the mechanism of ecological compensation out of the financial crisis and breathe them with new life is an urgent issue for policy makers and business managers. Therefore, the annual meeting focused its discussions on “Carbon Finance Platform during Great Change”.

This forum gained the support of the following organizations: Beijing Municipal People’s Government, British Embassy in China, Japan-China Economic Association, International Financial Company, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and Environmental Defense. About 300 representatives from National Development and Reform Committee, China Ministry of Environmental Protection, Dept. of Science and Technology, Ministry of Finance, People’s Bank of China and Banking Supervision Commission as well as Development Research Center of the State Council and financial circles, business circles and media will be present at the forum.(source: Sinanet)