The role of green finance in environmental protection: Two aspects of market mechanism and policies

Green finance is a new financial pattern to integrate environmental protection with economic profits, emphasizing "green" and "finance", two of which are controversial issues. This paper probes into the status quo of green finance in the field of renewable energy and finds out some inadequacies. We devote attention to development of market mechanism and formulation of policies. By revealing the internal contradictions between green finance and environmental protection, we propose solutions intrinsically for better achievement of ecological balance. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.