China's Green Investment Guidelines

Country :

In 2018, the Asset Management Association of China issued Green Investment Guidelines to establish basic principles and standards for green investment methodologies, strategies, regulations, benchmarks, and evaluations. The Guidelines also seek to address some outstanding implementation challenges in the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing space in China, such as those concerning disclosure, indicators, and the development of green investment products.

The Guidelines contain five chapters:

  • Chapter 1, the General Principles, establishes the overall definition of "green investment", and the scope of application of the Guidelines
  • Chapter 2, Aims and Principles, defines the objectives and basic principles of carrying out green investment activities.
  • Chapter 3, Basic Methods, provides a practical guide to fund managers regarding the many aspects of green investment activities, including staffing need and structure, asset evaluation methods, environmental risk assessment, investment products and strategies, as well as the optimization of portfolios. 
  • Chapter 4, Supervision and Management, establishes the monitoring and evaluation measures of fund managers against their “green” performances.
  • Chapter 5 of the “Guidelines” contains supplementary provisions on the responsible party and date of implementation. The self-assessment form for the fund managers is also given in the annex.