China Climate Alert is a weekly flagship product of Greennovation Hub, which aims to provide timely, effective and free news, analysis and resources for opinion leaders and decision makers in climate and energy sectors. Climate Alert focuses on key moments in global and domestic climate governance, and practices of exploring low-carbon economies at home and abroad. Our timely reporting and analysis with a global outlook aims to create an indispensable information platform for climate and energy stakeholders, to generate discussions about climate action and energy transformation among a wider audience, and to promote the society to form concerted efforts to cope with climate change. Since its commencement in 2013, Greennovation Hub has published more than 200 issues of China Climate Alert.

A dozen Chinese localities have released detailed action plans to promote energy conservation and carbon reductions as of Wednesday, while key industries are formulating path toward reaching their carbon peak, a further step toward China’s commitment to deal with climate change.

This report reviews the objectives, policies and support measures of international and Chinese financial institutions in relation to renewable energy investment and financing from four aspects, and proposes recommendations for Chinese financial institutions to improve the policy framework and practices in supporting renewable energies to contribute to the implementation of the dual carbon targets and the Paris Agreement.

Against the backdrop of climate change, rural in China women are particularly vulnerable, as they are sensitive to climate-related risks and also because they are more than men, depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. A lot of efforts could be made to address such vulnerability and contribute to effective climate mitigation and adapation.

With Vietnam as an example, this report analyzes the status quo and trend of renewable energy and power planning, action against climate change, environmental laws & regulations and governance objectives, and cooperation with China in the field of energy and power under the BRI. It also discussed the barriers, risks and opportunities faced by China in its investment in renewable energy in Vietnam. While it also provides practical suggestions for the Chinese government, financial institutions, enterprises and the Vietnamese government on policy support, action is needed to promote China’s investments in renewable energy in Vietnam.

Despite the rise of renewable energy as a cost-effective alternative, Pakistan remains wedded to coal power for reasons that have little to do with economics.

In the last decade, Chinese enterprises actively explore and develop overseas business which promotes economic development and employment in the countries of investment. However, due to the lack of understanding on social and environmental regulations and cultures of target regions or countries, and required communication and information disclosure are not sufficient, some enterprises suffer economic and reputation losses. “Going out” also means “bringing in”, accumulating experience in environmental risk management investing responsibly and leading the global green economy transformation, are challenges faced with “going out”, but also a rare opportunity. Since 2013, we regularly issue “Observation on China Overseas Investment” focusing on China’s “going out” and the global ecological issues, showing diverse views, identifying real problems and solving them.

This report provides policy recommendations for banks and financial regulators in China to protect World Natural Heritage. It analyses the performance of Chinese banks and the challenges they are facing in heritage protection, introduces “no-go” commitment and presents practices and experience of financial institutions worldwide. It serves as a guidebook for Chinese banks to participate in World Natural Heritage protection and biodiversity conservation, and contributes to global biodiversity targets and post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

This report analyses the experiences of international financial institutions in adopting gender mainstreaming. This report proposes a reference framework for financial institutions to conduct gender-responsive investment and financing activities from three aspects: institutional governance, investments, and other activities such as external partnerships. It also proposes specific recommendations for Chinese policy banks and commercial financial institutions.

This report provides scoping of biodiversity conservation funding mechanisms in ASEAN countries, as well as the roles and contributions of various ASEAN stakeholders, and compares the funding gaps for biodiversity conservation in ASEAN based on the National Biodiversity Strategic Action Plans (NBSAP) announced by ASEAN countries to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This report takes Vietnam as an example to further analyze its biodiversity financing mechanism. Finally, it gives recommendations to participate in ASEAN biodiversity conservation financing for both ASEAN and Chinese stakeholders.

The Fuzhou Declaration passed at the World Heritage Committee session called for enhanced international coordination and cooperation in addressing non-traditional challenges such as climate change and sustainable development, as well as improved management mechanisms for conservation efforts.

Green finance needed to safeguard all types of forests and the world’s terrestrial biodiversity.

The Guangdong Ecological Livable City project was initiated and designed by Greenovation Hub and the Environmental Institute of the School of Philanthropy at Sun Yat-Sen University. This is the first report on eco-friendly and livable cities initiated and completed by a non-government organization (NGO) in China. Based on the data analysis and questionnaires conducted in 21 prefecture-level cities of Guangdong Province, the researchers have demonstrated the relationship between urban growth and environment and climate resilience. Based on this research, a ranking and assessment of each city has also been done. The purpose of the project is to promote city development which has an eco-friendly approach and contributes to the achievement of low carbon development. The project also aims to encourage the joint efforts of local government and the public in achieving these goals, and shares rankings and information about best practices in order to promote healthy competition between the cities covered by the project.

Blue Pulse: Marine Conservation Bulletin is a Bi-week electronic newsletter on science, management and policy relating to marine biodiversity. This newsletter provides a timely and multi-disciplinary updates on marine conservation to inform a vivid domestic debate.

Through policy combing and comparison, expert interviews, and workshops, this study brings together the thinking and perspectives of Chinese and foreign experts on the synergies between climate change and ocean policy, and provides a preliminary identification of priority areas for future bilateral cooperation.

With an overview of tools applicable to the planning of large-scale marine protected areas, this report provides information and possible approaches for the future planning of large-scale marine protected areas and global ocean governance, to further enhance the understanding of large-scale marine protected areas among the public.

This study considers that blue finance could paly a more positive role in the sustainable development of ocean economy and proposes suggestions for future priorities for China.

This issue contains a number of articles on environmental change, fisheries management, and protected area in Antarctica, which will help readers to understand the background of the meeting.

Issue 59 | Blue Pulse: Marine Conservation Bulletin

This briefing paper provides an overview of Convention on Biological Diversity, focusing on the history, the operation and decision-making mechanism, multiple strategy plans and their implementation, two protocols under Convention on Biological Diversity, and the implementation progress in China, with the aim to help participants catch up on the progress of global biodiversity governance.

This report reviews the objectives, policies and support measures of international and Chinese financial institutions in relation to renewable energy investment and financing from four aspects, and proposes recommendations for Chinese financial institutions to improve the policy framework and practices in supporting renewable energies to contribute to the implementation of the dual carbon targets and the Paris Agreement.

This briefing serves as a reference for the 1st training session of the Chinese Social Organization’s Contribution to Global Ecological and Environmental Governance: Stocktaking of the Sustainable Development Agenda and Global Environmental Governance. We hope that the briefing will provide participating partner organizations with a “fast track” into relevant international environmental processes.

In order to reduce and avoid social and financial risks arising from environmental factors in China’s overseas investment , and guide domestic institutions to follow the Principles for Responsible Investment, further greening the BRI by fully integrating the notion of ecological civilization and low-carbon into the implementation，and contribute to achieving United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and goals of Paris Agreement, the Green Finance Committee of Finance Association of China (hereinafter referred to as the Green Finance Committee) established the Task Force on Environmental Risk Management for China’s Overseas Investment in 2017, a move under Environmental Risk Management Initiative for China’s Overseas Investment jointly launched by seven associations and committees subordinated to ministries. Subsequently, Environmental Risk Management Manual for China’s Overseas Investment (hereinafter referred to as the “Manual”) was finalized by the Task Force and was issued at the International Green Finance Forum hosted by Green Finance Committee in April 2018.Authored by GHub and supported by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, this report, as the main part of the Manual, mainly includes the objective, scope and general guidelines for environmental risk management of China’s overseas investment, typical environmental risk identification and assessment cases of BRI countries, country-specific climate risk management cases, as well as international conventions, industry norms and national laws and regulations.

With the launch of “The Belt and Road Initiative”, it is important to figure out how China plays its leadership role to promote green development and low-carbon transformation for fair and effective global climate governance. From the perspective of sustainable development, our publications target folk communication and cooperation agendas on ecological and environmental protection, climate change response, green finance innovation and energy innovation, energy transformation and the exchange and cooperation among civil societies. We also aim to promote discussion and information sharing on national green development along the Belt and Road and to form innovative, independent, high quality and practical researches and suggestions for China to improve its leadership in global green governance.