The Research Team for Green Finance was officially established in December 2018 by the National Institute of Financial Research at Tsinghua University. The Team, previously working under the team for Finance and Development, is dedicated to building a world-leading think-tank for policy research, toolkit innovation, capacity building and international collaboration in the field of green finance. The Team focuses on conducting relevant research on green building, green consumption, green technology and green agriculture. Moreover, the Team will also function as the secretariat for the Green Investment Principles for the Belt and Road (GIP) and the Global Green Finance Leadership Program (GFLP), a point of contact for the Green Finance Committee of China Society for Finance and Banking, and support the Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS).

The team is led by JU Jiandong, who is Chang Jiang Scholar of the Chinese Ministry of Education, Unigroup Chair Professor at PBC School of Finance in Tsinghua University, Director of Team for International Finance and Economic Research (CIFER), Team for Finance and Development of Tsinghua NIFR, Director of Research Center for International Digital Capital(IDC) of Tsinghua IFR.  After receiving his doctorate in Economics from Pennsylvania State University in 1995, he served as assistant, associate and full professor at University of Oklahoma and professor at School of Economics and Management in Tsinghua University. He was the Dean of International School of Business Administration, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics from 2014 to 2017. He was a resident scholar in International Monetary Fund, and consulted for World Bank and other policy organizations. He focused his research on International Trade, International Finance and Industrial Organization, and the main teaching courses are Advanced International Trade and Finance. His work has been published in American Economic Review, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Monetary Economics, American Economic Journal and other journals. He received 2016 Pushan Award for Excellent Papers on International Economics and 2020 Ministry of Education 8th award for outstanding scientific research in economics.

The Team has more than 10 full-time researchers, devoted to applying impactful research focus on green finance policy, environmental cost-benefit analysis, green investment along the Belt & Road, environment and climate risk analysis. In addition, the Team is closely engaging with various domestic and oversea institutions including, but not limited to, the PBOC, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, UNEP, UNDP, the Bank of England, the City of London, Finance For Tomorrow, Astana International Financial Centre, the State Bank of Pakistan, the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association, Abu Dhabi Global Market, etc. In addition, the GFD Team welcomes visiting scholars and cutting-edge collaborations.

The Team, the IFC-supported SBN and China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) jointly initiate a well-recognised knowledge-exchange platform, the Global Green Finance Leadership Program (GFLP), which was established for the purpose of capacity building and has successfully held two events in May and November 2018, respectively. These events were focused on sharing global experiences on developing green finance and attracted more than 250 participants from 48 countries - mostly developing countries along the Belt & Road, including officials from central banks, ministries of finance, financial regulators, stock exchanges, banking associations, as well as market practitioners from commercial banks and fund managers. Participants from other developing countries have invited the GFLP to host capacity building activities for financiers in their countries. As a response, the GFLP is planning to hold events in Latin America and the Caribbean (IDB), Africa (Morocco), and Astana (Kazakhstan) in 2019, with a focus on regional players greening their local financial markets.

Another research priority of the Team is greening the investments for the Belt & Road, especially through supporting the Secretariat of the GIP, through efforts including but not limited to encouraging signatories to the GIP, developing tools and detailed guidelines for implementation, as well as reporting progress of its implementation. The GIP was developed by a group of experts coordinated by China Green Finance Committee and the City of London, including experts from Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), IFC supported SBN, Belt & Road Bankers Roundtable, Green Belt and Road Investors Alliance, World Economic Forum, and the Paulson Institute. The GIP was a task mandated by the 9th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD) and was formally launched on November 30, 2018 in London. As of the end of 2018, major lenders for the investments in the Belt & Road have signed up to the GIP and more financial institutions and companies are expected to also sign up.

To summarise, research priorities of the team for the next few years include, among others:

1. Conducting research on green finance in supporting green building, green consumption, green technology, green agriculture;

2. Conducting research on green and low-carbon cities;

3. Supporting financial institutions to improve their capacities on green credit, green investment and environmental risk management;

4. Conducting research on Belt & Road countries building their green financial systems;

5. Capacity building through the GFLP and the online platform (www.gflp.org.cn), which includes face-to-face workshops, online learning and video products;

6. Through the GIP secretariat, developing related tools and guidelines, promoting the implementation of GIP by financial firms and companies that are involved in the investments for the Belt & Road;

7. Supporting work related to green and sustainable elements under the G20 Infrastructure Working Group and NGFS;

8. Facilitating bilateral collaborations on green finance between China and the UK, France and other countries;

9. Helping local governments in China and other countries to promote green finance, e.g. designing tools for calculating environmental benefits of green finance, developing green taxonomies (such as for Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, etc.); and

10. Other topics related to green finance development (such as lowering risk weights of green assets).

For more information about the Team, please contact YANG Lvyuan (yangly@pbcsf.tsinghua.edu.cn, +86-10-83021240) for green finance related issues and administrative issues.

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