On July 9, the Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Shanghai Ecology and Environment Bureau, Cheng Peng, the Bureau’s Chief Engineer, Bai Guoqiang, and President and Vice President of the Industrial Bank’s Shanghai Branch discussed plans to serve private enterprises, stimulate and release market vitality, optimize the business environment, and promote green development through green finance cooperation. Industrial Bank is the first “Equator Bank” in China to implement global green finance rules, and has established a green finance franchise and formed a green finance product system for energy efficiency and carbon finance. To ensure the environmental protection and green development of the Yangtze River Delta and Shanghai regions, Industrial Bank hopes to sign a strategic cooperation agreement with the Bureau, and carry out green finance cooperation on environmental information sharing and application, green project construction, green enterprise development, etc., and take the lead in implementing related cooperation projects in Qingpu, Songjiang, Fengxian, and other districts.
Bai Guoqiang, Chief Engineer of the Bureau, suggested that the green finance cooperation should focus on three key areas: (1) identifying opportunities for green development in key industries; (2) coordinating among municipalities, regions, the modern environmental governance system, and the Yangtze River Delta’s green development initiatives; and (3) sharing and utilizing regional ecological and environmental credit information to build platforms for green financial information exchange and supply and demand docking. Cheng Peng, Director of the Bureau, indicated that ecological and environmental protection through green finance innovation is important for Shanghai’s urban construction. Both parties will lead major strategies such as the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region, the G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor, and a world-class ecological island. The cooperation will serve the needs of “high-quality” green development, promote pilot demonstrations of green finance innovation, highlight Shanghai’s unique characteristics, and create a green city that people yearn to live in.