G20 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting

Session VIII – Green Finance and Climate Finance

Remarks by Angel Gurría,

Secretary-General, OECD

Shanghai, 27 February 2016

(As prepared for delivery)

 

Chair, Ministers, Central Bank Governors,

 

I would like to elaborate, but only briefly, on the need for locking-in “quality” in our long-term growth, notably based on mechanisms for transitioning towards low-carbon infrastructure.

 

The successful COP 21 results remind us about the urgency of further mobilising green investment to move towards a decarbonised economy.

 

The role of government in mobilising green investment remains key and should translate into a variety of actions – as outlined in our report “Mapping Channels to Mobilise Institutional Investment in Sustainable Energy” :

• From ensuring a stable, transparent and integrated policy framework avoiding sudden or retroactive changes to support policies;
  
  
• To aligning policies and regulatory frameworks towards a transition towards a low-carbon economy: Too many existing policy settings are misaligned with the transition to a low-carbon economy, including in the area of infrastructure development, notably clean energy infrastructure. This is making the transition towards a low-carbon economy ineffective and more costly. Let me refer you to the OECD, IEA, Nuclear Energy Agency and International Transport Forum first economy-wide global diagnosis of such potential misalignments that was published last year.
  
  
• We also need to improve the risk-return profiles of green infrastructure projects with stable and clear price signals, to facilitating the development of liquid markets for instruments like green bonds. In this respect, we commend China for the creation of the new Green Finance Study Group to which we are actively contributing, notably with a report on the promising green bond market -which has tripled in the last two years – and one on the recent development of green investment banks.

Finally, the OECD has been asked by the COP21 French Presidency to develop further our work on the governance of investment by institutional investors related to environmental, social and governance risks. This work, closely related to the one carried out by the FSB industry-led Task Force on disclosure, will also contribute to G20 action work on greening investment.  

We look forward to working with all of you to address those critical challenges for the global economy. Thank you!