Asia is the world's top region for infrastructure investment, and these investments need to be sustainable in order to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A fair number of standards now exist to help investors assess the sustainability of infrastructure, and one of those specific to the debt market is green bonds.

In today's episode, we sit down with Xie Wenhong, China Program Manager at the Climate Bonds Initiative. Wenhong has experience working on development and energy in Southeast Asia, and previously worked under Dr. Ma Jun at the Center for Finance and Development of Tsinghua University. He holds an MA in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.

Show notes:

Greening China's Bond Market, by Sean Kidney:

https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/greening-chinas-financial-system-chapter-10.pdf

Introduction to China's green bond market in China Dialogue (2018): https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/10387-International-investors-eye-China-s-green-bonds

2019 Green Bond Market Summary https://www.climatebonds.net/files/reports/2019_annual_highlights-final.pdf Growing green bond markets: The development of taxonomies to identify green assets https://www.climatebonds.net/files/reports/policy_taxonomy_briefing_conference.pdf Comparing China's Green Definitions with the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy https://www.climatebonds.net/resources/reports/comparing-china%E2%80%99s-green-definitions-eu-sustainable-finance-taxonomy-part-1