G20 summit to focus on green finance

TORONTO: Climate change and the funding of “green” initiatives will form a major part of this year’s G20 summit in China in September, Mark Carney, governor of Bank of England, said, emphasizing China’s commitment to environmental issues.
“If anyone is in any doubt, these issues are of paramount interest to China and will form a substantial proportion of the Chinese G20 summit,” Carney told Canada’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna at an event in Toronto.
China, one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, is keen to be seen taking a leadership role in global action to combat climate change and has said it will push for efforts to encourage green investment through its period of G20 leadership.
Those initiatives could lead to a “green” bond market to finance environmentally friendly projects, China has said.
The question, Carney said, is the level of participation by the private sector.
“If it’s good,” he said, “there’ll be demand for take-up by the investor community and by creditors, and that will help with the transition.”
Carney also backed efforts by world leaders and international banks to launch programs that put a price on carbon dioxide emissions.
“Carbon pricing is the cleanest way to regulate to stabilize emissions,” he said.
US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, meanwhile, urged European Union and British officials to be pragmatic and flexible in talks on Britain’s departure from the EU, and said he would meet new finance minister Philip Hammond later on Thursday.
“I will be meeting with the new chancellor (finance minister), I look forward to it,” Lew told a news conference after meeting German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin.
“We believe that it is in the best interests of Europe, of the United States and the global economy to end up with a result that produces a highly integrated relationship between the UK and the EU,” he said of negotiations on Britain leaving the EU.
“We think it is critical that negotiations take place in a pragmatic, transparent and smooth manner where both sides to demonstrate flexibility in order to produce results that are the right outcome,” Lew added.
“Let us have a mutually acceptable and amicable outcome.”
The US economy is performing “in a stable way” despite global headwinds, he said, adding that the Group of 20 leading economies should use “all of the tools, including structural reforms, and fiscal policies as well as monetary policy.”
“We think it’s important that the G20 continues to consult on exchange rates and to work closely and to make sure that we don’t see competitive devaluations,” Lew added.