Jieqing Zhang, NRDC’s  China Country Director spoke at the conference  

On October 25, as one of the co-initiators, NRDC joined 12 organizations including the World Bank, UNDP, UNEP, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, International Finance Forum, WRI, WWF, Paulson Institute, Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance, Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Institute and two commercial banks in China, to launch the Global Joint Initiative on Partnership of Biodiversity and Finance (PBF) in Beijing. The PBF was established to support the close collaboration between biodiversity conservation and financing, in particular, to help address urgent biodiversity challenges and close the considerable action and financing gaps. Speakers at the launch event included Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat for Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Department General Shuhong Cui of MEE’s Nature Ecology Conservation, former Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo of the Republic of Korea, AIIB President Liqun Jin, and Henry Paulson. Jieqing Zhang, the NRDC China Country Director, participated in the discussion and emphasized that we should tackle climate change and biodiversity loss simultaneously, an effort which demands tremendous financial resources from both the public and private sectors. NRDC will work with PBF to facilitate financial institutions’ efforts to incorporate climate and biodiversity factors into decision-making processes, enhance information disclosure, and motivate financial product innovation.