- How sustainable are the ECB and the People’s Bank of China?
- Huawei plans to attract international employees
- More hukou rights for migrant workers
- CIA shifts focus to China
- Huawei researches innovation in Finland
- Rising demand for lithium
- Facebook whistleblower reports surveillance of Uighurs
- AsiaBerlin Summit schedule for Friday
- Opinion: Johnny Erling on Xi Jinping’s favorite political color
It is the same old problem: Both ECB chief Christine Lagarde and her Chinese counterpart Yi Gang of the People’s Bank of China are well aware of the central banks’ responsibility in the fight against climate change. Nico Beckert takes a closer look at the roadmaps of the ECB and the PBoC to help shape a green economic transition. China’s central bank is able to work more closely with the state on climate protection than Western central banks. But the PBoC also serves Beijing’s economic goals, pouring billions into the coal industry. The ECB, on the other hand, faces a different predicament: It lacks democratic legitimacy and is hardly allowed to act independently on climate policy.
Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei wants to recruit more foreign talent to set tomorrow’s standards in new business areas such as household appliances, wearables, and industrial machinery. Frank Sieren analyzed an internal memo from Huawei to find out more about what the CEO is planning for a campus near Shanghai to make foreign top executives feel right at home.
The whole country is currently trimmed to red during the Golden Week holidays. Flags on every street corner, red flower decorations everywhere. On the occasion of the national holiday, state and party leader Xi Jinping gave a speech to his Politburo. And it is just as red-tinged: from red culture, red successors, red resources, red monuments, red ideals, red genes to the red nation. In his column, Johnny Erling explains why Xi did not title his first anthology the “Red Xi Bible”, but “Learn from Xi’s Golden Sentences” instead.
Have a great golden Autumn weekend!
Ning Wang
Feature
Central banks in a bind over the climate crisis
The next world climate conference in Glasgow at the beginning of November is drawing ever closer. In a recent study, the United Nations stressed that “the world is on a catastrophic path” to “2.7 degrees of warming,” and finance plays a pivotal role.
The world’s largest banks have continued to invest billions in fossil fuels or supported investment in the sector through underwriting, even after the Paris climate agreement was passed. And these investments are a threat to the stability of the financial system. That’s why the climate crisis is also an issue for central banks. European Central Bank (ECB) chief Christine Lagarde called climate change “the biggest challenge that is addressed to us.” Climate change affects the ECB’s “primary objective of price stability“, the Frenchwoman said.
Her Chinese counterpart Yi Gang of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) urges that “we must evaluate the potential impact of climate change on financial stability.” The timeframe for the People’s Republic to achieve carbon neutrality is shorter than that of the EU or the US, Yi said. “The time is shorter and the curve is much steeper for China. It means our financial institutions are faced with grave risks and should begin their green transition right away,” the PBoC chief warned. This is because the longer Chinese banks lend to fossil fuel industries, the greater the risk that companies will be unable to repay these loans when climate policies make their fossil fuel business model unsustainable in the future.
Continue reading now
… and get free access to this Professional Briefing for a month.
Are you already a guest at the China.Table? Log in now