Deputy Secretary General and Chief Development Officer of BRIGC, Executive Director of the BRI Green Development Institute

Mr. Zhang Jianyu played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC) and has led the research work of the BRI Green Development Institute. The Green Investment and Finance Partnership (GIFP), initiated by the BRIGC, is playing an increasingly important role in promoting the global energy transition and contributing to the achievement of the 2030 target of tripling global renewable energy capacity. 

Being an expert on environmental and public policy, with a focus on the application of market-based instruments (MBIs) in solving environmental problems, Mr. Zhang has been deeply and continuously involved in the development of China’s sulphur dioxide emissions trading market and the national carbon market. He founded the China Program of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and was fully responsible for its operation from 1999 to 2021.  He also helped establish and manage China’s first specialised Sino‑foreign joint‑venture environmental consulting firm and, as the representative of the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA), participated in and implemented some of the earliest Sino–US bilateral environmental co-operation projects.

Mr. Zhang holds a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University, a master’s degree from Stanford University, and has pursued doctoral studies in Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and in Finance at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.