During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, environmental protection investment will reach 17 trillion yuan, and PPP projects will be strictly controlled.

  The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to promote green development, accelerate the establishment of a legal system and policy orientation for green production and consumption, and establish and improve an economic system with green and low-carbon circular development. Build a market-oriented green technology innovation system, develop green finance, and expand energy-saving and environmental protection industries, clean production industries and clean energy industries.

  The reporter of the Economic Information Daily learned that with the strengthening of environmental governance and the strong growth momentum of PPP projects in the field of environmental protection, the environmental protection investment market is accelerating.

  Zhao Hualin, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of State-owned key large enterprises in the State Council, revealed at the first Xin ‘anjiang Green Development Forum held recently in 2017 that the traditional environmental protection business will maintain an annual growth of 25% on the basis of 500 billion yuan in environmental protection investment in 2015, and the annual investment in environmental protection industry will rise from 400 billion yuan to 500 billion yuan to 1 trillion to 1.5 trillion yuan.

  Investment in environmental protection will reach 17 trillion during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

  "At present, the intensity of environmental governance is unprecedented. Both the atmospheric environment and the water environment have entered an important turning point of improvement, which has provided a strong impetus for environmental protection technology research and development and industrial development, and the environmental protection industry has ushered in a golden age." Wang Yuqing, deputy director of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Population, Environment and Resources Committee and former deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, pointed out at the first Xin ‘anjiang Green Development Forum in 2017.

  China’s green economy market has great potential. The data shows that in 2016, the output value of the three industries of energy conservation, environmental protection and resource recycling in China has exceeded 4.5 trillion yuan. During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the planned social environmental protection investment will reach 17 trillion yuan. Among them, the action plan for the prevention and control of air, water and soil pollution has been fully implemented, with an estimated total investment of 8.6 trillion yuan. In 2016, the sales revenue of the national environmental protection industry was about 1.15 trillion yuan, an increase of 20% over the previous year. According to estimates, in order to achieve environmental protection goals and international commitments to peak carbon emissions, until 2030, China’s annual green investment will reach 30,000 to 4 trillion yuan.

  Zhao Hualin gave another set of data that confirmed each other: In the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" and the next 10 to 20 years, China will focus on three major areas: gas ten, water ten and soil ten, and the main investment line will shift from emission reduction to governance. According to estimates, during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the original business models of water, gas and solid waste will continue to maintain the growth rate of 20% to 30%, while the water environment, sponge city and soil remediation will drive the investment of 1.5 trillion to 2 trillion yuan, and the annual environmental protection investment will increase by 300 billion to 400 billion yuan. In addition, the traditional business will maintain an annual growth rate of 25% on the basis of 500 billion yuan in environmental protection investment in 2015, and the annual investment in environmental protection industry will rise from 400 billion yuan to 500 billion yuan to 1 trillion to 1.5 trillion yuan.

  "The future and a long period of time will be the best time for environmental protection enterprises, and it is also an era full of challenges and opportunities. In recent years, many central enterprises have established environmental protection companies, which means that they are optimistic about the development prospects of the environmental protection industry. " Zhao Hualin said.

  According to Fu Tao, president of E20 Research Institute, the development of environmental protection industry has gone through three stages: the early environmental protection industry mainly provided professional services to the government, and the government did whatever it needed; sewage treatment was done when the sewage treatment failed to meet the standards, and garbage treatment was done when the garbage treatment failed to meet the standards. This is the 1.0 era of environmental protection industry, that is, the era of unit service. The release of "Water Ten", "Gas Ten" and "Soil Ten" marks the arrival of the era of environmental protection industry 2.0, and all three "Ten" require environmental effects. This era considers the system services of enterprises. But the first two stages need to spend government money. As the environmental industry enters the 3.0 era, it is the practical period of landing in Lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets. It is a great proposition whether the ecological management can be completed with less government money and without government money.

  By 2020, the demand for green finance will exceed 15 trillion.

  In the eyes of experts and insiders, there are many opportunities and large space for the development of green finance. Relevant data show that during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, China’s green industry needs to invest at least 2 trillion yuan per year, and the demand for air control in the past five years is about 1.7 trillion yuan, of which the government’s financial funds can only provide 10% to 15%, and a large amount of funds gap needs financial channels to support it.

  Internationally, the development of green finance has become a world trend. Many countries, such as China, are strengthening top-level deployment, and more and more international financial institutions are actively participating in the green financial market. Taking green bonds as an example, it is estimated that the global issuance of green bonds will reach 300 billion US dollars in 2018.

  Domestically, China has taken green development as a major national strategy. In June this year, Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China presided over the the State Council executive meeting and decided to set up green financial reform and innovation pilot zones in five provinces (regions) of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou and Xinjiang to accelerate the innovation of green financial system and mechanism and promote the development of green economy.

  Hong Qi, chairman of China Minsheng Bank, predicted that green finance will become a new growth point for financial institutions in the future green development of the Belt and Road Initiative and supply-side structural reform. By the end of 2020, the demand for green finance in China will reach 15 trillion to 30 trillion yuan. The demand for innovation in green credit, green insurance and asset securitization will be more urgent, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, which will have a broad space for green finance.

  According to Ma Zhong, the former dean of the School of Environment of China Renmin University, to develop green finance, other resources and conditions should be considered. For example, only by exerting the synergistic effect of fiscal and tax policies and environmental protection policies can green finance bring the greatest benefits.

  It is understood that at the end of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan, the final accounts of financial funds for environmental protection and energy conservation reached 480 billion yuan. At present, the financial funds for environmental protection in China are the fastest growing. In the first nine months of this year, the growth rate of financial funds for energy conservation and environmental protection was 33%, which is expected to exceed 600 billion yuan by the end of the year. However, compared with investment in fixed assets, this is only a few tenths.

  "If we continue to increase investment rapidly, we can promote and support green finance, and make financial funds enter the environmental protection field and green field. Together with the price tax policy and the strictest environmental protection system, it will really promote the rapid development of green finance." Ma Zhong said.

  PPP in the field of environmental protection has entered the stage of "upgrading"

  Many insiders said that green finance needs to guide social funds and use comprehensive services to support environmental protection construction. The PPP model will greatly promote the development of environmental industry.

  In fact, PPP in the field of environmental protection is showing a strong growth momentum. According to the eighth quarterly report of the National PPP Integrated Information Platform Project Library recently released by the Ministry of Finance, the participation of private enterprises in environmental protection projects has increased significantly. Compared with last year’s municipal engineering, transportation and water conservancy construction, this year’s municipal engineering, ecological construction and environmental protection are in the forefront.

  Deng Qi, vice president of CDB Securities, believes that after the 19th National Congress, in the field of green finance, policy will further build institutional innovation to guide social funds. In addition to financial policy support, there should be some specialized guarantee institutions and credit enhancement mechanisms to attract social capital to participate effectively, especially to attract private enterprises to actively participate in the construction of environmental protection.

  Li Yuantang, director of the Environmental PPP Center of the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, pointed out that to better promote the PPP model in the field of environmental protection, efforts need to be made in five directions: First, PPP projects in the field of environmental protection will be more closely integrated with industry management in the future. It is necessary to combine the requirements of environmental protection tasks at the stage, prioritize and give priority to projects with strong necessity and urgency; Second, for PPP projects in the field of environmental protection, we should strengthen the payment according to performance. Environmental effect is the starting point and end result of environmental PPP project implementation; Third, strengthen the characteristics of the industry. At present, many environmental PPP projects have applied models in other fields, such as applying the municipal field to the rural field. We should fully consider the characteristics of different projects and carry out targeted design; Fourth, at present, many environmental comprehensive improvement projects are very large, and the scale even reaches billions or tens of billions. For such projects, it is necessary to strengthen the relevance between projects or the contribution to achieving the expected environmental protection goals; Fifth, actively promote the innovation of PPP model.

  "At present, in the field of environmental protection, it is basically based on public welfare projects, and the government needs to pay for it later. However, if we do not innovate the investment return mechanism of environmental PPP projects and rely entirely on government payment, the project will be difficult to sustain. " Yan Yuantang said.

  It is worth mentioning that in recent days, PPP management has frequently issued documents, emphasizing the standardized operation of PPP projects. Shi Yaobin, Vice Minister of Finance, also said earlier that the next step is for the financial sector to focus on the "four lines" of PPP work, including strengthening the rigid constraint of 10% of the "red line" of financial affordability demonstration and keeping the "bottom line" of prohibiting all kinds of borrowing in disguised form by PPP.

  In this regard, experts believe that the next step in the development of PPP should not focus on increment, but on improving quality. The future development of PPP will be more standardized and orderly. PPP in the field of environmental protection is also facing challenges. On the one hand, the control of PPP projects will be more stringent; On the other hand, PPP projects will become bigger and bigger in the future.

  Tian Weihong, executive deputy secretary-general of the strategic alliance for technological innovation of water environment treatment industry, believes that the gradual concentration of PPP projects will become a trend in the future. With the development of industry, fighting alone will gradually change into coordinated development, creating benefits for enterprises, creating value for society and creating green for the country.

  Reporter Ban Juanjuan