The recent years have witnessed the efforts of more and more countries in exploring and practicing sustainable investment. It has become a consensus among regulators and various parties of the market to integrate environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) factors into investment process. In China, sustainable investment was mainly adopted by the bank credit business at the outset. Since the seven Chinese ministries and commissions including the People’s Bank of China jointly released the Guidelines for Establishing the Green Financial System in 2016, sustainable investment in China ’s capital market has developed by leaps and bounds, which is accompanied by the constant emergence of new sustainable investment products and the wider and wider recognition of the concepts of ESG and sustainable investment.

China Sustainable Investment Review 2019 (this “Report”) straightened out the status quo and size of sustainable investment in China based on public information. According to public statistics available as of November 2019, in China, the balance of green credit was RMB 9.66 trillion; the size of pan-ESG mutual funds was RMB 48.594 billion; the total amount of green bonds issued was RMB 1.02 trillion; the total amount of social bonds issued was RMB 422.086 billion; and the actual capital contribution of green industry funds was RMB 9.161 billion.

As China’s capital market continues to open up to the world, more and more sustainable investment capitals will flow into the country. In the meantime, more financial institutions in China are incorporating ESG factors into their businesses and traditional assets. We believe that sustainable investment in China will continue to grow in size, coverage and influence, and, as practices accumulate, more and more diversified strategies and products will be made available to the investors.