Respected President Ma Haitao, 

Former Minster Zhao Yingming, 

Respected Director-General Wang Yao, 

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, 

Good morning. 

It is a great pleasure to join you at the Annual Conference of the International Institute of Green Finance. 

On behalf of UNDP, I would like to warmly congratulate IIGF and its team on another year of leadership in green finance. 

More than a decade ago, China started to build its green finance market almost from scratch. 

Today, China has the world’s largest green credit market, with green loans reaching 44.8 trillion RMB by the end of 2025. 

That transformation is extraordinary. 

UNDP is proud to have been part of this journey, together with IIGF and many partners present today. 

But the next chapter will be different. 

The question is no longer how to finance green projects. 

It is how to finance change across the wider economy. 

How do we finance the transition of high-emitting sectors? 

How do we invest in resilience before disasters happen? 

And how do we bring nature, biodiversity and resource efficiency into financial decision-making?  

These are the areas where I see important opportunities for our future cooperation. 

First, let us take green finance into new frontiers. 

Circular finance is one example. 

A circular economy is not about recycling. 

It is about reducing pollution and emissions at source, using resources more efficiently, and making supply chains more resilient. 

UNDP is already supporting practical work in these areas, including a five-year Global Environmental Facility-supported project on strengthening plastics recycling in China. 

Biodiversity is another frontier. 

Through our BIOFIN initiative, we work with the central bank and other partners to identify where biodiversity finance is needed, where existing resources can be better used, and how new sources of finance can be mobilized. 

We also need to direct much more attention to climate change adaptation. 

Last year, floods and geological disasters in China caused more than 167 billion RMB in direct losses. 

The lesson is clear.  

We cannot only finance recovery after a disaster. 

We have to invest in resilience before disaster hits. 

Every dollar invested in resilience saves at least 10 dollars in avoided damages. 

This is where UNDP initiatives like our Insurance and Risk Finance Facility and other financial solutions, can make a real difference. 

Second, let us take China’s experience and connect it globally. 

China has valuable experience in using public resources to unlock wider investments. 

Through our MOU with the Ministry of Finance and the Central University of Finance and Economics, we recently completed work on horizontal ecological compensation.  

The idea is simple but powerful: use public finance to reward environmental outcomes and encourage broader investment. 

We are also learning from China’s Eco-Environment-Oriented Development pilot projects.  

These projects show how environmental improvements can be bundled with commercially viable activities. 

In other words, how public and private finance can work together. 

This is very close to the logic of blended finance.  

And there is a real opportunity to share these lessons with other developing countries.  

Third, we need better ways to connect finance and impact. 

Here, international standards can help. 

Together with the International Organization for Standardization, UNDP developed Guidelines for the SDGs, providing practical guidance for organizations to move from SDG alignment to SDG action. 

Take the principle of “leaving no one behind”—a central promise of the 2030 Agenda. 

The Guidelines present pathways for financial institutions to design more inclusive business models, developing tailored financial products for underserved groups, such as affordable credit for smallholder farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises. 

They also show companies how to promote fair wages and safe working conditions across their supply chains, including for informal workers and other vulnerable groups.  

These are concrete ways of turning the SDG vision into action.  

As we look to the future, I hope UNDP and IIGF can continue to work together in very practical ways: 

to develop innovative financial solutions;  

to test them through real projects; 

and to take what works from China to the global stage.  

And as UNDP we would be very pleased to continue serving as a bridge—connecting knowledge, policy and capital. 

Together, we can turn green finance from a success story of the past decade to an even greater driver of a future that can sustain and include everyone. 

Thank you.