Our Chairman, Dr. Ma Jun, delivered a speech at the 2026 Debt Capital Market Annual Forum organised by the International Capital Market Association (ICMA) on 31 March 2026 in Beijing, an event for which CASI was proud to act as a supporting partner.

Dr. Ma spoke on the topic of sustainable finance regulatory and market developments in a panel alongside Sacha Sadan (Director of Sustainable Finance, UK Financial Conduct Authority), with the discussion moderated by Min Zhu (Chief Market Officer, Bank of China London Branch). In his address, he shared China’s journey in building its green finance ecosystem – including how it first established a policy framework targeting the mobilisation of RMB4 trillion in annual green finance flows, over 90% of which were channelled through the banking sector, before scaling up to the world’s largest green lending and green bond market. He also highlighted the People’s Bank of China’s decarbonisation facility as a valuable policy incentive that could be replicated by other jurisdictions.

Dr. Ma underscored the value of sustainable finance taxonomies in guiding Chinese banks and other financial institutions to assess and report on their green loan portfolios. Such taxonomies not only enable cross-bank green performance benchmarking but also pave the way for enhanced sustainability disclosures by financial institutions and their corporate clients, aligned with the standards set by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Drawing on his extensive experience in developing green finance taxonomies – including the first Chinese green bond taxonomy, the Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT) and the Multi-jurisdiction Common Ground Taxonomy (MCGT) – Dr. Ma stressed the critical importance of ensuring the interoperability of green standards and definitions. This, he noted, is fundamental to facilitating cross-border sustainable finance transactions and capital flows, while simultaneously reducing funding costs and third-party verification expenses for the issuance of sustainable financial products. He provided real-world examples of how green bonds aligned with the CGT – including those issued by major Chinese banks – stand to benefit from this labelling tool.

Dr. Ma concluded his remarks by emphasising the need to pool global resources and capital to unlock actual green capital for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs), particularly in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, where demand for renewable energy solutions is substantial and growing. In this context, capacity building remains a top priority to raise awareness and build capabilities across the sustainable investment ecosystem. He added that this represents a key area for UK-China collaboration to deliver targeted support to EMDEs, with CASI serving as a central platform to consolidate and disseminate global expertise and knowledge in green and sustainable investment.