China’s financial institutions must help fund carbon neutrality goal, says central bank governor
- Yi Gang says financial markets must step in to provide the funding needed to meet the country’s climate change targets
- Xi Jinping has pledged to reach peak emissions by 2030 and to make China carbon neutral by 2060
China’s central bank will include climate change among the issues it considers in implementing its monetary policy and supervisory role in future and will encourage financial institutions to help meet the country’s goal of becoming carbon neutral, the bank’s governor has said.
Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China, made the comments at a closed-door session at China Development Forum on Saturday and they were published on the bank’s website the following day.
The target of reaching peak carbon emissions before 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2060 had raised new and higher demands for the bank, he said.
Extensive investments will be needed to meet the target and the financial markets must take the lead in providing the funding, Yi told the forum.
He estimated that it would need hundreds of trillions of yuan to fund the programme and the government could only cover a small proportion.