Currently, with the successive conclusion of the Two Sessions in various regions, green development and sustainable development have become the core topics in many local government work reports.
In the agenda of the Shandong Two Sessions, topics such as green energy, green transformation, green buildings, and green travel are frequently mentioned, aiming to integrate the concept of green development more deeply into economic development and social livelihood.
The work report of the People's Government of Guizhou Province emphasizes the full promotion of ecological civilization construction and the continuous consolidation of ecological advantages. Through the convening of the Beautiful Guizhou Construction Promotion Conference, Guizhou is striving to be at the forefront and make a demonstration in the modernization process of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. The proportion of days with excellent environmental air quality in central cities of the province is as high as 99.1%, and the excellent water quality rate of major river outflow sections has always remained at 100%. This report clearly depicts Guizhou's struggle and outstanding achievements in ecological civilization construction in 2024.
When looking ahead to 2025, Heilongjiang Province proposes to promote the green transformation of economic and social development, strengthen ecological environment protection and restoration, and deepen the defense of blue sky, clear water, and clean land, in order to advance the solid steps of green and low-carbon development. Meanwhile, other provinces have also proposed similar goals and corresponding implementation strategies.
The emphasis on ecological construction and industrial transformation by local governments is of great significance for achieving the dual carbon goals. Looking ahead to the future, we will witness vivid scenes of "green mountains" transforming into "golden mountains", "carbon tickets" turning into banknotes, and "reservoirs" and "forest reserves" transforming into "silver reserves" constantly emerging.
Green and low-carbon development and industrial upgrading and transformation have become the consensus of the whole society. While promoting the development of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) at the national level, local governments are also actively promoting the implementation and practice of ESG concepts at the local level.
In November 2023, Shenzhen released the "Implementation Plan for Carbon Trading to Support Peak Carbon Emissions and Carbon Neutrality", which aims to scientifically and reasonably link the total carbon market quota with the city's total carbon emissions control by 2025, continuously expand the coverage of the carbon market, and create a standardized, orderly, open and transparent market environment. At the same time, Shenzhen will also complete the construction of service platforms such as the Carbon Inclusive and Carbon Market Unified Management Platform, improve the data information management system, and provide high-quality support for the Shenzhen Carbon Trading Market's leading demonstration nationwide. By 2030, the carbon trading system and mechanism in Shenzhen will be further improved, and the support effect of carbon trading on carbon peak and carbon neutrality will be more significant, helping Shenzhen build a global green and low-carbon city that leads sustainable development, ensuring the timely achievement of carbon peak, and taking solid steps on the road to carbon neutrality.
This implementation plan covers ten key areas of work, including total carbon emission control, green and low-carbon transformation of industries, energy conservation and carbon reduction in key areas, inspiring the public to practice low-carbon concepts, enhancing carbon sink capacity, strengthening carbon finance innovation and promotion, improving policy rules and standard systems, enhancing supporting infrastructure construction, strengthening international and domestic exchanges and cooperation, and assisting in the forward-looking layout of carbon neutrality. These tasks are specifically broken down into 32 measures.
In the first quarter of 2024, Beijing, Shanghai, and Suzhou, three key cities, have all introduced policies on ESG development. Among them, Beijing has released the "Implementation Plan for Promoting the High Quality Development of Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) System in Beijing (Draft for Comments)", which aims to gradually improve the policy system for high-quality ESG development in Beijing by 2027, accelerate the formation of the ecosystem, strive to achieve an ESG information disclosure rate of about 70% for listed companies in Beijing, further enhance ESG certification and rating levels, enrich and deepen ESG practices, and improve the ESG related standard system. By 2035, the high-quality development of Beijing's ESG system will enter the track of legalization, information disclosure will become fully efficient, the ESG ecosystem will be complete, the rating system will highlight high-level characteristics, ESG practices will be rich and colorful, and the regulatory system will operate effectively, making Beijing a national highland and international representative city for ESG development.
Shanghai has released a three-year action plan (2024-2026) to accelerate the improvement of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) capabilities of foreign-related enterprises in the city. Its overall policy goal is to form a foreign-related enterprise ESG ecosystem with the participation and coordinated development of the government, industry organizations, foreign-related enterprises, and professional service institutions by 2026.
Suzhou Industrial Park has released two documents, the "Action Plan for ESG Industry Development in Suzhou Industrial Park" and the "Several Measures to Promote ESG Development in Suzhou Industrial Park", which clarify six major projects and 13 specific tasks, including optimizing spatial layout, cultivating business entities, promoting innovative development, deepening integration and application, expanding open cooperation, and creating a development ecology, and provide financial rewards to relevant parties.
Green parks and zero carbon parks are a collection of technological, conceptual, and institutional innovations. Their standardized construction of zero carbon parks incorporates the concept of carbon neutrality in design, planning, and other stages. Through the comprehensive use of carbon neutrality measures such as energy conservation, emission reduction, and carbon sequestration, they achieve zero carbon development in all fields, cycles, and chains of industries and energy within the park. This carbon neutral development model that deeply integrates production, ecology, and life can better optimize resource allocation, reduce carbon emissions, and have a good demonstration effect and technology diffusion effect. It can not only drive the transformation of enterprises in the park, but also have a positive impact on the green development of surrounding areas.
The increasing emphasis of local governments on green and zero carbon parks is consistent with recent policy directions. For example, at the Central Economic Work Conference in December 2024, the establishment of a batch of zero carbon parks was first explicitly proposed and became one of the key tasks for 2025. Subsequently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also requested the construction of a number of zero carbon factories and zero carbon industrial parks to promote the large-scale and high-value utilization of industrial resources, and to include zero carbon parks in the key work of industrial green development.
In promoting green and low-carbon transformation, many government work reports have proposed measures to develop transformational finance. For example, Shandong Province has proposed to deepen the reform of state-owned assets and enterprises, accelerate the reform and transformation of financing platforms and urban investment companies, and highlight the development of green and low-carbon industries. Chongqing plans to build a green manufacturing, green service, and transformational financial system. Guangdong Province emphasizes the comprehensive transformation and standardized management of government financing platform companies, and accelerates the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. Shanxi Province has formulated financial standards for the transformation of coking and non-ferrous industries. Zhejiang Province proposes to promote the innovative development of government investment funds, lead the leveraging of market-oriented funds, strengthen patient capital, and encourage venture capital funds to invest early, small, long-term, and hard technology.
To achieve the dual carbon goal, developing transformational finance is an important breakthrough. The core function of green finance is to guide and optimize the allocation of financial resources, solve the problems of environmental externalities and endogeneity, and raise funds for the comprehensive green transformation of the economy and society. From a policy perspective, the top priority for the high-quality development of green finance in China is to implement the dual carbon goals. In recent years, the effectiveness of China's green finance in promoting low-carbon transformation has gradually emerged. In terms of green credit, as of the end of the third quarter of 2024, the balance of green loans in China has reached 35.75 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.1%.
In addition, establishing a carbon accounting platform and carbon accounts is also an important measure to promote the development of transformational finance and green finance. In the "Work Plan for Improving the Carbon Emission Statistical Accounting System" jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and other eight departments in October 2024, it was proposed to fully implement the national and provincial carbon emission statistical accounting system, and to conduct statistical accounting of carbon emissions at the national and provincial levels. Multiple provinces will also establish a carbon emission statistical accounting system as a government work goal for 2025.
Through the carbon accounting platform, enterprises can have a clear understanding of their own carbon emissions, optimize production processes, improve energy efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions based on the platform's analysis results, thereby achieving green development. At the same time, this platform also helps the government formulate relevant policies and promote the sustainable development of the entire society. In the process of establishing a carbon accounting platform, local governments will effectively improve the quality of carbon emission data and provide full process guidance and review for enterprise carbon verification work, ensuring the accuracy of carbon emission report data and the fairness of enterprise performance.
While improving the operation mechanism of the carbon market, local governments also attach great importance to the development of green and low-carbon technologies, and closely integrate mechanisms such as carbon trading and emissions trading with the active development of related markets. At the same time, corresponding subsidies, tax reductions, loan interest subsidies and other support measures are provided.