Green Finance and Carbon Markets

Course Overview

This course develops the financial ecosystem that funds the climate transition: debt and equity instruments (green bonds, green loans, green funds, green insurance), carbon markets (compliance and voluntary), international mechanisms (Article 6 of the Paris Agreement), sustainable taxonomies (the Chinese 2025 unified version, EU, M-CGT) and the disclosure frameworks that protect investors from greenwashing. China is the world’s largest issuer of domestic green bonds, hosts the largest carbon market by volume covered, and since April 2025 issues sovereign green bonds in international markets, marking a turning point in the internationalisation of its green financial system.

Learning Objectives

• Understand the key concepts of sustainable finance, the main actors and the five PBoC pillars for the development of China’s green financial system.
• Interpret and apply the relevant sustainable taxonomies: China’s Unified Green Taxonomy (2025), the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, the M-CGT (Multijurisdictional Common Ground Taxonomy) and the SAT.
• Identify and compare the main sustainable financial instruments: green bonds (sovereign, panda, Greater Bay Area), green loans, green funds, green insurance and transition finance.
• Operate conceptually with Chinese carbon markets: CN ETS (Emissions Trading System) (CEAs, banking, compliance, price projections) and CCER (China Certified Emission Reduction) (voluntary market, methodologies, platforms).
• Comply with the main climate disclosure requirements for issuers in China and for international investors (SFDR, EU Taxonomy Regulation).
• Identify greenwashing risks in the structuring of financial instruments and design strategies for accessing green finance for projects in China.