金融支持生物多样性保护:全球实践及政策启示

Biodiversity conservation supported by finance:Global practice and policy enlightenment

生物多样性丧失带来的社会经济和金融风险,以及金融机构在生物多样性保护融资方面发挥的重要作用已经在全球范围内形成广泛共识。本文聚焦各国近年来在金融支持生物多样性领域的实践探索,重点从国家和区域层面金融产品的创新实践总结了各国的先进实践经验,并提出全球金融机构参与生物多样性保护的未来发展趋势。由于目前中国金融支持生物多样性保护普遍存在国家层面相关规范和指导不足、金融机构生物多样性风险防控意识缺乏、相关金融产品不足、生物多样性风险评估方法不成熟、信息披露机制不完善等问题与短板,本文提出我国金融机构参与生物多样性保护的多元化支持路径和建议:全面推进生物多样性保护纳入绿色金融标准体系,制定相关政策引导金融机构创新生物多样性友好型金融产品,加快开发生物多样性影响的评估工具,完善企业和金融机构生物多样性信息披露制度。

Background&Aims:It has been globally recognized that biodiversity loss poses socio-economic and financial risks.A growing body of research shows that the loss of biodiversity is not only ecologically relevant,but also could threaten financial stability.Financial institutions play an important role in financing biodiversity conservation.The rapid development of green finance in recent years has also brought historic opportunities and challenges to newly emerging biodiversity finance initiatives in China.Efforts have been made to integrate biodiversity into green finance standards and other areas,but the concrete practice of biodiversity finance is still under-explored.This article focuses on recent explorations of biodiversity finance by various countries and emphasises on the innovative practices of financial products at national and regional levels.Progress:Innovative financial products such as green credit,green securities and green insurance direct funds towards biodiversity-friendly projects and have become an important way for countries to explore the field of biodiversity finance.The United States,the United Kingdom,Canada,Germany,the Netherlands,Sweden and other countries have accumulated a wide range of practical experience in the application and risk research of green financial products such as green credit and green bonds.They are now exploring innovative products and financing models such as blue bonds,eco-labels and natural debt conversion mechanisms.There are five main objectives for financial institutions taking on biodiversity conservation initiatives:(1)to guide investments in favour of nature conservation,(2)to fully integrate conservation awareness into their business,(3)to actively avoid investment and financing activities that would lead to biodiversity loss internally and(4)to strengthen international cooperation in biodiversity and investment in eco-friendly projects.Prospects:Under the enormous challenges facing global biodiversity,the rapid development of biodiversity finance is urgent.It is imperative that biodiversity conservation be fully integrated into the green finance classification criteria.Financial institutions will become the most important actors in biodiversity financing by pushing resources towards biodiversity conservation and nature-based solutions,directing capital to eco-friendly projects,and exploring synergies between biodiversity conservation and climate change.As people’s awareness of biodiversity conservation increases,the scale of funding demand for biodiversity conservation and development in China will continue to grow.Financial support for biodiversity conservation in China will help to transform enterprises in an eco-friendly,green and low-carbon direction.In the future,financial institutions will use the relatively well-established green financial standards as a reference to incorporate biodiversity risks into their biodiversity management framework.Challenges&Recommendations:Currently,China faces many problems in reaching biodiversity conservation.There are insufficient regulations and guidance at the national level,and a lack of awareness and assessment of biodiversity risks among financial institutions.This paper proposes diversified support paths and makes recommendations for China’s financial institutions to participate in biodiversity conservation.Financial institutions must incorporate biodiversity conservation into the green finance standard system,formulate relevant to innovate biodiversity friendly financial products,accelerate the development of biodiversity impact assessment tools,and improve the system for biodiversity information disclosure.