China's National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) and the People's Bank of China (PBOC) jointly issued an implementation plan for the high-quality development of green finance in the banking and insurance sectors, accompanied by a Q&A with responsible officials. The plan is intended to steer banks and insurers to expand support for green, low-carbon and circular economic activity while strengthening management of environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and improving institutions’ own ESG performance. The plan prioritises finance for industrial upgrading and cleaner production, low-carbon transport, green infrastructure and urban-rural construction, and the energy transition including project support for solar, wind and other new energy, financial services across the new energy vehicle value chain, cleaner use of traditional energy and energy security. It also calls for increased support for pollution control, ecosystem restoration, biodiversity and major ecological programmes, alongside support for national and regional carbon markets, climate investment and financing project pipelines, and the development and application of green and low-carbon technologies. On delivery, it promotes tailored green credit, a stronger green insurance system, and expanded products including energy-efficiency lending, green credit asset securitisation, green supply-chain finance, and collateralised financing backed by carbon emission rights and pollution discharge rights, as well as catastrophe, environmental liability, carbon sink price and carbon emissions trading insurance. Risk measures include building ESG risk management frameworks with client classification and dynamic assessment, embedding ESG controls across the full business lifecycle, developing climate risk methodologies and tools with phased scenario analysis and stress testing by sector, and ongoing monitoring of concentrated green industries to optimise sector investment and financing policies.

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