Painting the Dragon Green: What China's Infrastructure Investments mean for the Future of ESG-aligned Investments

Abstract

As the second-largest economy in the world, China’s investment profile presents an opportunity to deliver considerable solutions to global challenges, including staggeringly large infrastructure gaps. By integrating critical environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria, responsible investment ensures both reliable returns and global growth that will last. While China is just beginning to develop their responsible investment sector, the state-driven model of financing employed must be considered to effectively achieve domestic prioritization of these globally-recognized criteria. Without proper adoption of environmental, social, and governance criteria, the risk of environmental, human, and capital costs is overwhelming. Setting China’s growth on the track of stability will take a coordinated effort by policy and private actors championing responsible investment in the country as well as global stakeholders and policy professionals.