On 30 June 2025, Chinese Ambassador to the UK Zheng Zeguang was invited to the Net Zero Finance Innovation Summit of City Week 2025 and delivered a keynote speech titled “Jointly Promoting Green Transition for a Bright Future of Development”. Jointly organised by City and Financial Global, the Department for Business and Trade, the City of London and UK Finance, the Summit attracted over 300 guests from different sectors in the UK including Lord Alok Sharma, Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of GFI Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas, and CEO of City & Financial Global Maurice Button.
The full text of the speech is as follows:
Jointly Promoting Green Transition for a Bright Future of Development
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
I want to thank Mr Maurice Button for the kind invitation.
It is my great pleasure to join you all at the Net Zero Finance Innovation Summit.
The City of London has long played a pivotal role in promoting mutually beneficial cooperation in finance and trade between China and the UK. And I know the Lord Mayor and Policy Chairman both visited China earlier this year. I want to thank them for their support in this partnership between our two countries.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The challenges posed by climate change and biodiversity loss are undeniable. Everyone can feel it in such a scorching hot day in London.
However, the US’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and its launch of the tariff war have created significant headwinds to not only global economic growth, but also global climate governance.
Now more than ever, China wants to call on all countries to support multilateralism, uphold the goals and principles of the Paris Agreement, and strengthen collaboration in sustainable development and environmental protection.
China is a steadfast practitioner and significant contributor to green development.
In China, we have never been distracted by the global turbulence and uncertainties, but stayed the course of high-quality development, expediting green and low-carbon transition and actively protecting the ecological system.
In 2022, I stood here and outlined China’s targets and actions for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.
Three years on, China has made substantial strides in transforming our industrial and energy structures, and achieved remarkable progress in cutting carbon emissions, reducing pollution, and pursuing green development.
The green industry, featuring electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies, has become a strong, new economic driver.
China’s energy mix has changed significantly, with non-fossil fuel accounting for nearly 40% of our total electricity generation and the installed capacity of renewable energy surpassing half of the total installed capacity.
According to a recent report by The Guardian, between January and May this year, China added 198 GW of solar and 46 GW of wind. That is about the total annual electricity generated in Indonesia or Turkey.
In 2024, China’s CO2 emissions per unit of GDP decreased by 3.4%, the proportion of good air quality days reached 87.2%, and that of high-quality surface-water bodies reached 90.4%.
China’s green leaf area has expanded, contributing a quarter of global increase.
Around the world, China’s technologies and manufacturing capacity have made clean energy products affordable, helping other countries, especially the Global South, to expedite their green and low-carbon development.
China’s green finance features strategic design and has experienced robust growth.
China places great importance on the pivotal role of green finance in building a Beautiful China and achieving sustainable development.
Over the past three years, China has issued several policy documents on this front. For example, the Opinions on Leveraging Green Finance to Support the Building of a Beautiful China, the Guidance on Further Strengthening Financial Support for Green and Low-Carbon Development, and the Guidance on Advancing the Five Key Areas of Finance.
Thanks to continuous efforts, China’s green finance sector has achieved remarkable expansion, with green credit balance exceeding 40 trillion yuan by the first quarter of this year.
Between January and May this year, China issued 236 green bonds, totalling 411 billion yuan.
And China’s green insurance has grown significantly, with a coverage of 469 trillion yuan by the end of August 2024.
China and the UK enjoy promising prospects in green finance cooperation.
Given the shared mission to promote green and low-carbon transition, there are great potentials for China and the UK to cooperate in green finance.
I hope you have noted that the word “green” was mentioned 31 times in the policy outcomes of the 11th China-UK Economic and Financial Dialogue, and green finance and biodiversity finance were identified as key areas of collaboration.
The UK-China Green Finance Taskforce, jointly organised by the City of London and China Society for Finance and Banking, has made good progress.
Several Chinese banks have successfully issued green bonds in the City.
In April this year, China issued 6 billion yuan in green sovereign bonds on the London Stock Exchange. It was the very first RMB-denominated green sovereign bonds, marking another milestone in China-UK cooperation on green finance and sustainable development.
Moving forward, both sides can further leverage their complementary strengths to expand cooperation in green finance. I hope the City and all the business leaders present will continue to take a lead in these endeavours.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I know much has been said about China’s economy and China-UK economic relations.
The truth is, in the face of a challenging external environment, especially the rise of unilateralism and trade bullying from the US, China’s economy continues to demonstrate strong resilience, and maintains an upward trajectory.
In the first quarter of this year, China’s GDP grew by 5.4% year-on-year. And with all the measures we have rolled out to stimulate domestic demand, consolidate the real estate sector and alleviate local government debt, we have full confidence in achieving our annual growth target of around 5%.
At the same time, China’s economy has become smarter, greener and more open to the outside world.
China is the UK’s third-largest trading partner, with a bilateral trade exceeding 110 billion pounds for several years running, and two-way investment stock surpassing 130 billion pounds.
To further grow the China-UK economic partnership, the key lies in resisting and scaling back the Cold-War mentality of treating China as a challenge, even threat, to the UK.
The fact is, strengthening cooperation with China, be it in trade, finance, technology, or education, will only support the UK in achieving its economic growth objective, reducing its cost of living, and accelerating its net-zero transition.
Chinese businesses do not come to the UK to destroy your economy or harm your national security. Instead, they have come to grow with your economy, create jobs and tax revenues and seek win-win results.
China highly commends the contributions by foreign businesses and embraces businesses from around the world, including the UK. Likewise, the UK should treat Chinese businesses in a fair, just and non-discriminatory manner.
Chinese businesses want to see more clarity, consistency, and pragmatism in UK policies. They don’t want to see the UK draw an ideological line in commerce, overstretch the concept of national security, or allow any third country to interfere in normal China-UK commercial activities.
I am pleased to see that China and the UK have held a series of dialogues and cooperation mechanisms, including the Economic and Financial Dialogue, Energy Dialogue, Climate Dialogue, and Environment Dialogue.
I hope both sides will work closely together to turn the policy outcomes of these dialogues into concrete actions and tangible results.
We should follow the principles of mutual respect and mutual benefit, stay open-minded, and actively unlock the potentials of China-UK cooperation, to benefit the sustainable development of our two countries and the world at large.
I wish City Week 2025 a great success.
Thank you.
