JPMorgan eyes green financing

Multinational eager for collaboration with China on sustainability efforts

US financial giant JPMorgan Chase & Co expects to participate in the fast expansion of China's green financing market as part of its global long-term commitment to sustainability.

JPMorgan Chase is "very eager to engage with Chinese financial markets and to collaborate on climate-related financial risk disclosures," Matt Arnold, managing director and global head of sustainable finance with JPMorgan Chase, told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

The multinational financial group is a member of the US Financial Stability Board Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures－a scheme to develop voluntary and consistent climate-related financial risk disclosures for use by companies in providing information to a wide range of stakeholders, which is chaired by Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City.

In terms of the development of green financing, part of the so-called sustainable finance, "we are seeing very encouraging activity in China. And one thing that is really distinctive to me about China is the extensive government support," said Arnold.

Noting that in the last six quarters, around 30 percent of corporate green bonds globally were from China, Arnold admitted that the Chinese green financing market is distinctive in how collaborative it is between corporate, industrial sectors, the banking sector and government, compared with the private-sector-led businesses in the US market.

Given the large gap between the demand and current supply for green finance worldwide, he believed that the related market will see fast growth with China stepping up on global leadership on climate change.

The firm is expanding its comprehensive strategy to advance environmentally sustainable solutions for clients and its own operations, by setting up two new strategic goals four months earlier that includes: to be 100 percent reliant on renewable energy by 2020 and to facilitate $200 billion in clean energy financing through 2025, the largest commitment by a global financial institution.

That is about $20 billion per year on average, an increase from the roughly $16 billion per year that JPMorgan Chase was facilitating in green financing to date.

Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase explained the responsibility in sustainable financing earlier as: "Business must play a leadership role in creating solutions that protect the environment and grow the economy."

"This global investment leverages the firm's resources and our people's expertise to make our operations more energy efficient and provide clients with the resources they need to develop more sustainable products and services."

In 2016, JPMorgan Chase helped arrange the sale of Duke Energy's 2,090 megawatt business in Brazil to China Three Gorges for $1.2 billion enterprise value.

The group also served as global coordinator that helped the Agricultural Bank of China issue $1 billion worth of green bonds－China's first bank green bond, at the London Stock Exchange in October 2015.

Other industries, that the group has had an opportunity to help facilitate sustainability efforts among corporate and investor clients include, solar energy, transport, rail, wind energy, hydroelectricity and clean technology.