In the opinion of Wang Yao, one of China’s leading green finance experts and a scholar at Beijing’s Central University of Finance and Economics, the harmonisation of Chinese and global green bond standards is some way off.
Her pessimism comes despite last week’s decision by China’s central bank to halt financing for “clean coal” projects through green bonds — a landmark move that could help convince foreign investors to play a greater role in the country’s huge sustainable debt market.
“If you want to make different countries all have a totally unified set of standards then that would be very difficult,” Ms Wang told the FT in a recent interview.