Green funding experts in the UK and China have launched a special, new investment group to drive the global growth and development of green finance solutions, it has emerged.
Unveiled on 1 November, the Green Belt and Road Investor Alliance has stemmed from research undertaken by major, bilateral think tank, the UK-China Green Finance Taskforce.
The Alliance will work towards a new definition for green infrastructure, and explore ways of integrating green finance with the ambitious ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative – set to unleash a host of infrastructure projects across Asia over the next few years.
By embedding green finance knowhow and procedures into the Belt and Road programme, the Alliance hopes to ensure that the multiple schemes it encompasses will be sustainable as well as profitable.
In addition, the Alliance aims to create a financial structure and assessment process for the relevant projects. That system will enable private investors to commit funding alongside development banks – thereby maximising the amount of capital deployed along the Belt and Road.
News of the Alliance coincided with the publication of an interim report from the Taskforce, Turning Green Momentum into Actions.
Released on 1 November, the report marks the beginning of a more intense period of collaboration within the Taskforce – which was set up as a strategic partnership between the City of London Corporation’s Green Finance Initiative (GFI) and the China Society for Finance and Banking’s Green Finance Committee (GFC).
The report highlights five developments in the overlap between corporates, governments and the investment community that it would like to see around the world over the coming months and years:
GFI chairman Sir Roger Gifford said: “The implementation of these recommendations by financial institutions, central banks and policymakers will be a real game changer for the growth of green finance in the years to come. This should help ensure sustainability in the Belt and Road initiative.”
He added: “The innovative products that both the UK and China are promoting show that the global financial system can not only help to meet environmental and climate concerns on a commercially viable basis, but also serve to unlock vast, untapped investment opportunities.
“I hope that these recommendations go a long way to helping mobilise more green capital, driving the green agenda forward, helping to reduce our carbon footprint and building a more sustainable global economic model.”
One founding member of the Alliance is UK-based firm the Green Investment Group, which arose from a merger between the Green Investment Bank and the renewable wing of Macquarie Capital.
The Group’s head of investment banking, Edward Northam, said: “The Belt and Road initiative is a monumental undertaking with the potential to promote green economic growth across a number of geographies.
“We’re excited to be a founding member of the Investor Alliance and hope our experience of developing our guiding green investment principles will help the Alliance meet its stated goal of harmonising existing green standards.”
Read the full report Turning Green Momentum into Actions here.