‘Green’ Financial System in the Context of Smart Eco-cities Development: Case of China

With the rapid development of industrialization, the current ecological and environmental problems have become increasingly prominent. That is why many countries started to understand their responsibility and began to provide large-scale and long-term plans for new types of development. This idea advanced the importance of the development of environmentally friendly industries, reduce energy and material consumption, protect the ecology, develop low-carbon technologies and set up green cities, where nature can coexist with the rapidly developing society. Green financial system (GFS) is an important driver and catalyst for sustainable development and green development in order to change the structure of the polluting economy, consolidate the foundation for green development and optimize the space for innovative green promotion. Green finance can provide necessary financial support to facilitate the upgrowth of ecologically more clean industries, to dissipate the risks of novelty of green technologies and products’ innovation and promote more useful resource allocation. China for a very short period has turned into one of the leading countries in developing of green finances, establishing its framework and promoting of green cities and projects. One of the Chinese regional clusters known for its environmental downturn and quick green recovery is Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Triangle. The “Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Plan” that was proposed in 2014 claimed and was aimed at collaborative performance in ecology, smart infrastructure, industrial alteration and GFS establishment as a key instrument of regional greening process. The development of green finance is an inevitable choice for the Chinese sustainable path. Nowadays, China has created the world's first relatively comprehensive policy framework and market-based green financial system and has made a significant shift from a catching-up country to leadership in green finance, demonstrating important international influence and control, but there are still many problems to be solved. Facing the new economic development situation, the development of green finance was combined with Chinese national conditions to establish a green finance development system with Chinese peculiarities. Keywords: green economy, green finances, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development, green bonds, green credits