Cleaning Up: Leadership in an Age of Climate Change

How China Became a Green Finance Superpower - Ep160: Dr. Ma Jun

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Apr 24, 2024

Dr. Ma Jun discusses China's green finance leadership, drafting guidelines, G20 initiatives, clean energy challenges, and domestic capital formation in a pivotal episode on sustainable finance.

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ANECDOTE

Air Pollution Epiphany

Dr. Ma Jun's work on green finance began after witnessing severe air pollution in Beijing in 2013.
The shocking PM2.5 levels prompted him to rethink the financial sector's role in pollution.

INSIGHT

Green Finance Genesis

Dr. Ma realized financial systems incentivized polluting activities, leading to health crises.
He wrote a book proposing green finance to shift investments towards cleaner solutions.

INSIGHT

China's Green Finance Need

China needed substantial funding for environmental protection, exceeding government capacity.
The financial sector became crucial, leading to green finance guidelines in 2015-2016.

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Welcome to Season 12 of Cleaning Up! If you want a sense of the trajectory of climate action, you have to understand China, and you have to understand finance. There is no one better to share insights on both than Dr Ma Jun, Founder and President of the Institute of Finance and Sustainability in Beijing.

Between 2014 and 2020, Dr Ma served as Chief Economist and then Member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People’s Bank of China. Over the subsequent years, Dr Ma played a key role in the development of sustainable finance in China and around the world. He led the drafting of China’s green finance and green bond guidelines; he led work on green finance at the G20; he pushed for the greening of China’s Belt and Road initiative; he set up initiatives with the global accounting and standards bodies; and he helped enlist the world’s major financial centres in the drive to green the capital markets.

Dr Ma is a towering figure in the area of green finance in China and in the world, and provides an invaluable perspective on one of the most significant players in the clean energy transition.

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Links and related episodes:

Dr Ma’s 2017 book, “The Economics of Air Pollution in China: Achieving Better and Cleaner Growth” https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/ma--17494
Dr Ma and Simon Zadek: Decarbonizing the Belt and Road https://www.climateworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BRI_Exec_Summary_v10-screen_pages_lo-1.pdf
Episodes 14 with Jonathan Maxwell – Cheaper, Cleaner, More Reliable https://www.cleaningup.live/episode-14-jonathan-maxwell/
Episodes 113 with Jonathan Maxwell — Checkpoint 2023: Energy Efficiency Investment https://www.cleaningup.live/ep113-jonathan-maxwell-checkpoint-2023-energy-efficiency-investment/
Episode 153 with Lauri Myllivyrta – Shedding Light on Energy's Dirty Secrets https://www.cleaningup.live/shedding-light-on-energys-dirty-secrets-ep153-lauri-myllyvirta/
Episode 84 with Mark Carney - The 130 Trillion-Dollar Man https://www.cleaningup.live/ep84-mark-carney-matching-net-zero-supply-and-demand/
Episode 145 with Professor Avinash Persaud – The Bridgetown Initiator https://www.cleaningup.live/the-bridgetown-initiator-ep145-prof-avinash-persaud/