Ambassador Yang Xiaorong's Speech at the Bank of China Green Bond Bell ceremony
2021-06-04 22:02
Honourable Mr. Pierre Gramegna,
Ladies and Gentlemen, dear friends,
It is a great pleasure to join you today at the Bank of China Green Bond Bell ceremony.
Recently, the green finance collaboration between China and Luxembourg has enjoyed a rapid development, and has become the new highlight of the two countries’ mutually beneficial and pragmatic cooperation, which further enriched the connotation of friendly relationship between China and Luxembourg. Today, Bank of China’s Green Bonds are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange, and all the proceeds will be used to support eligible green projects. This will not only be a boost to the environmental protection initiative, but also a big help to promote the financial cooperation and communication between the two countries. I wish this event a great success.
Dear friends,
Nowadays, the climate change, including the biodiversity loss, the desertification, and the extreme weather events are occurring frequently, which are bringing severe challenges to humanity’s survival and development. On top of that, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has created additional complications to both economic development and environment protection across the globe. In the face of such challenges, how should the international community respond? And what kind of future do us intent to leave for future generation?
In April this year, President XI Jinping remarked at the Leaders’ Summit on Climate that the international community needs to come up with unprecedented ambition and action. We need to act with a sense of responsibility and unity, and work together to foster a community of life for man and Nature.
China is a participant, contributor and trailblazer in global ecological conservation, who keeps its words and is resolute in deed.
As a participant who take actions actively on climate change, China has written the ecological advancement and conservation into its constitution, actively undertaken the international responsibility in line with its own development stage, and adopted a series of pragmatic actions to achieve the 2020 climate action goal ahead of the schedule. By the end of 2019, the proportion of non-fossil energy in China’s total energy consumption has risen to 15.3%. The installed capacity of renewable energy has accounted for 30% of the world total, accounting for 44% of the global increment. China owns more than half of the world’s total new energy vehicles. Since 2000, 25% of the global afforestation are contributed by China. And in terms of the increasing volume of forest resources during the same period, China also ranked first among all countries.
As a trailblazer against the global climate change, China made an official announcement that it will strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. China has committed to move from carbon peak to carbon neutrality in a much shorter time span than what might take many developed countries, and that requires extraordinarily hard efforts from China. China has decided to accept the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and tighten regulations over non-carbon dioxide emissions. China’s national carbon market will also start trading. China has always abided by its promise. Guided by the newly developed green concept, China will promote the comprehensive green transition in both economic and social development while guarantying the high-quality development, and progress steadily towards the above mentioned goals.
As a promoter of global collaboration against climate change, China is firmly committed to putting multilateralism into action, and promoting a fair and equitable system of global environmental governance for win-win cooperation. China is one of the first countries to sign the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and has also made key contributions to the conclusion and implementation of the Paris Agreement. China will host COP15 to the Convention on Biological Diversity this October and looks forward to working with all parties to enhance global governance on biodiversity, supporting COP26 to the UNFCCC in achieving positive outcomes. China has also made ecological cooperation a key part of Belt and Road cooperation. A number of green action initiatives have been launched, covering wide-ranging efforts in green infrastructure, green energy, green transport and green finance, to bring enduring benefits to the people of all Belt and Road partner countries.
China and Luxembourg have maintained a long-term friendly relationship. Jointly tackling climate change has become an important part of our bilateral cooperation. Luxembourg attaches great importance to environmental protection and has taken green finance as an important element to guide its diversified development. China is the second largest green bond issuer in the world. China and Luxembourg have great potential and broad prospects for cooperation in green finance. China is willing to join hands with Luxembourg and endeavour to leave a clean and beautiful world to future generations, so that we can jointly foster a community of life for man and nature.