At the 2026 Sustainable Global Leaders Conference, held from October 20 to 22 at the Huangpu Expo Park in Shanghai, Professor Robert Holzmann, former governor of the Austrian central bank, spoke at a sub-forum titled "Dual Carbon Action and Shared Responsibility." The event also hosted the Second Green Industry and Sustainable Consumption Expo, with a financial news update released on October 22.
Holzmann noted that he previously served as governor of the Austrian central bank, which is part of the European Central Bank system. Central banks operate through monetary policy tools, namely interest rate adjustments and asset purchases, with bonds being a key category, and the European Central Bank has already been increasing the share of green securities in its holdings.
Regarding observations on COP31, the 31st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, he raised three points: first, building collaborative networks to promote diverse capital deployment and expand cross-market capital flows; second, financial resources are fragmented, with shortcomings in carbon accounting, sovereign-related matters, and carbon market integrity; third, at the digital technology level, there is a lack of standardized infrastructure, making it difficult to bridge gaps.
In the area of digital carbon systems, he said the first step is to break down data silos and rely on automated carbon auditing, satellite remote sensing, on-site equipment, and algorithms to achieve automated measurement; second, use actionable blockchain ledgers to complete automated data fusion for carbon credit trading, carbon registration, and smart carbon credit issuance, annotating metadata with source and ownership information to avoid double counting; based on verifiable data, financial institutions can develop carbon-related businesses, launch digital carbon financial tools such as carbon derivatives and programmable green bonds, and enable real-time assessment.
"The key to carbon credits lies in the source of information. It's not just about carbon neutrality—carbon information itself is a solution," he emphasized. "We need to find alternative solutions and explore feasible paths in energy production and areas with lower pollution, which is also the direction many companies are working toward."
Comments