Wang Zhongmin: ESG and Low-Carbon Development Should Be the Focus of BRI Financial Cooperation

Source: World Finance Forum (WFF)

Published: 2021-06-03 

On May 12, 2021, the Belt and Road Forum for International Financial Cooperation and the 4th World Finance Forum (WFF) was successfully held in Xi’an, China. It was co-hosted by the World Finance Forum and the People’s Government of Shaanxi Province, organized by the Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau of Shaanxi Province and Shaanxi Provincial Convention and Exhibition Center, and co-organized by Shaanxi Financial Asset Management Co., Ltd. Wang Zhongmin, former Vice Chairman of China’s National Council for Social Security Fund, Vice Chairman of the WFF, and Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Center for BRICS and Global Governance (CBGG) attended the occasion and delivered opening remarks.

Wang Zhongmin said that, under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), we need to interact and cooperate on a wide range of areas, form a synergy in the financial sector, and promote partnerships in terms of money, banks, funds, securities and other financial dimensions. Against the backdrop of the “30·60” goal (peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060) and BRI cooperation, it is necessary that we take actions to achieve low carbon development and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Financial trading systems hold the key to the carbon allowance allocations, carbon incentives, and carbon constraints. In this digital era, digital finance will become increasingly important in BRI cooperation, as on digital platforms it can estimate the values of all things that cannot be estimated and trade all things that cannot be traded in the past, which will increase the market size. In this sense, finance is indispensable, and it has a greater role to play.