The 2025 Qingdao Venture Capital Conference transformed the coastal city into a green finance hub on Friday, as experts and investors gathered to explore ESG financial reform and green finance innovation.
Discussions kicked off with a focus on integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into financial products and investment strategies. Key areas highlighted included unified power markets and advanced energy storage as opportunities for green credit, fund management, and carbon-neutral investments.
Lai Xiaoming, chairman of the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, said green investment is no longer a niche sector but the main stage, highlighting the Chinese mainland’s ambitious 2035 targets: non-fossil energy to exceed 30 percent of total consumption and new energy installation capacity to reach 3.6 billion kilowatts, more than six times the 2020 level.
Yin Hong, vice president of the Modern Finance Research Institute under the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, outlined steps to institutionalize ESG, including embedding it into corporate governance and investment policies and creating classification systems for diverse green financial products.
Lin Shan, deputy director of the International Finance Center under the Ministry of Finance, highlighted fiscal and finance policy synergy in green development. From 2021 to 2024, over 2.3 trillion yuan was invested in sustainable projects, he said, with more support planned in the coming years.
The conference underscored a strategic shift toward a market ecosystem where sustainability and climate goals drive financial creativity. For young global investors and sustainability advocates, the Qingdao forum sent a clear message: green finance is the future, powered by data, policy, and market innovation.
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Green finance on focus at 2025 Qingdao Venture Capital Conference
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