To foster Sino-German collaboration in the field of climate- and sustainable finance, the “Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – Climate Partnership” project and the Climate Investment and Finance Association (CIFA) of the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences jointly organized a series of study tours to European countries from 2023 to 2025. The study tours provided a platform for dialogue between Chinese representatives – from local governments, research institutes, financial institutions – and their peers in Germany and the EU. Under this framework, a study tour was jointly organized from 8 to 15 June 2025. The workshops and meetings during the tour focused on key topics such as climate risk management and climate resilience finance for financial institutions, sustainable information disclosure, and transition finance.
The delegation was led by Zhu Qingfeng, Chief Accountant of China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group Co., Ltd. (CECEP), Vice Chairman, and Secretary-General of CIFA. It brought together leaders and industry experts from Ping An Insurance Group, Hengfeng Bank, Beijing Institute of Green Finance and Sustainable Development (IFS), University College London (UCL), and CIFA.
During its stay in Europe, the group held meetings with different banks, think-tanks and other institutions to gain an in-depth understanding of the EU Omnibus Simplification Package, sustainable information disclosure, transition finance, climate risk management, and related topics. Besides, GIZ co-hosted an expert workshop together with the Sino-German Center for Finance and Economics (SGC) at Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (FS), IFS, and CIFA in Frankfurt.
Meetings with three banks
The Deutsche Bundesbank introduced its key role in the German financial system – maintaining the stability of the euro system currency and prices, as well as its policy guidance measures to promote the implementation of sustainable development concepts in domestic financial institutions, especially in the areas of stress testing and climate risk management.
As one of the three pillars of Germany’s banking system, DZ Bank is the central bank for 672 local cooperative banks in Germany, with managing assets of €660 billion. At the meeting, DZ Bank introduced its sustainable performance in the capital market and key considerations in climate risk management. Among other things, the institution has established an internal climate risk assessment model that can rate the risk of loan projects and dynamically adjust credit policies. Both parties discussed how to enhance the quality of information disclosure while meeting regulatory requirements, enabling investors to better understand the bank’s sustainable finance business layout and risk status.
Deutsche Bank shared innovative practices in sustainable finance products during the discussion, such as design concepts and market feedback for green bonds and sustainability-linked loans. In terms of implementing sustainable finance policies, the bank explained how it integrates policy requirements into business processes and risk management systems.
DG-CLIMA, DG-FLISA and Eurosif
During their stay in Belgium, the delegation held in-depth discussions with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA) and Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services, and Capital Markets Union (DG FISMA), as well as the European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif) and Climate & Company. DG CLIMA outlined the EU’s initiatives to promote the EU taxonomy and related regulations on sustainability disclosure, aiming to integrate sustainability into financial institutions’ decision-making frameworks and ensure that capital flows align with the goal of the Paris Agreement. DG FISMA explained the background and potential impacts of the EU’s Omnibus Simplification Package. At the same time, it emphasized that there is currently a significant global climate adaptation funding gap, and an urgent need to mobilize more funding to strengthen climate resilience and promote the low-carbon transformation of hard-to-abate industries. Participants exchanged views on topics such as financial support for climate resilience and the key role of insurance in responding to climate disasters and rebuilding a better future (“build back better”).
Eurosif shared its practices in advocating sustainable finance policies, collaborating with financial institutions, investors, and other stakeholders to drive policy formulation and improvement, and fostering the development of a sustainable investment ecosystem. Regarding disclosure, Eurosif analyzed the impact of the Omnibus Simplification Package and shared its experiences in promoting industry-led self-regulatory disclosure initiatives. The final regulation and implementation timeline of the Omnibus Simplification Package remains subject to further negotiations between the European Parliament and member states.
Sino-German Workshop on Climate Risk Management and Sustainability Disclosures
On June 11, GIZ, CIFA, SGC, FS, and IFS jointly held the “Sino-German Workshop on Climate Risk Management and Sustainability Disclosures” in Frankfurt am Main. The workshop offered two keynote speeches sustainability disclosures, focusing on practices at different levels in Germany, China and the EU.
- From awareness to action: Currently, awareness about climate risks continues to increase, but how to translate this awareness into climate risk management capabilities within financial institutions and concrete actions to appeal to a wide range of economic activities have become an important issue that needs to be addressed urgently.
- Addressing the challenge of climate risk: Climate risk encompasses both physical risks and transition risks, and its complexity and uncertainty have gone beyond the traditional risk management paradigm, and innovative identification and response mechanisms are urgently needed.
- The key role of financial institutions: Financial institutions, especially banks and insurance companies, have a key responsibility in identifying, measuring and mitigating climate risks. Tools for climate risk management, for example, the analysis of future climate scenarios, stress testing, and innovative solutions for risk transfer, need to be strengthened.
- Improving data availability and data quality through technology innovation: Future solutions for the application of technology, including AI, remote sensing, satellites, and other technologies, can help obtain high-quality, useful, and actionable data to support financial institutions’ climate risk assessment, quantitative analysis, and stress testing.
- Strengthening collaboration to build resilience: Collaboration between regulators, financial institutions, and the private sector is key to building a resilient financial system and achieving a smooth transition to a sustainable economy.
- Increasing transparency and consistency: The transparency and consistency of climate-related disclosures should be further enhanced to better support sustainable investment decision-making and risk assessment.
- Capacity building for SMEs: SMEs are under pressure to cope with increasingly stringent disclosure requirements, especially in developing transition plans. To this end, panelists called for stronger capacity building support for SMEs and more targeted guidance on the regulatory framework.
- Strengthening regional coordination and resource mobilization: Achieving transformation of different sectors and regions is critical to achieving the low-carbon development goals. Financial institutions can support the process by designing transition plans, strengthening information disclosure and optimizing resource allocation. At the same time, promoting active participation and close collaboration of all parties is regarded as a key element to ensure an effective sustainability information disclosure.
