JPMorgan Chase said the fast expansion of China's green finance market would continue as the government strengthens environmental protection.

Calling China's green finance market "brand new," Matt Arnold, global head of sustainable finance at JPMorgan Chase, said the market has grown the fastest and will continue to expand strongly as the government has made environmental protection a top priority.

"There is a lot of work to be done with the air, water, land, and food, so the green finance market will be here as long as that work is to be done," Arnold said in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency.

"We have seen very encouraging activity in China, and the market is going to continue to grow," given the large gap between demand and current supply of green finance, he said.

China announced a plan in 2016 to establish a national green finance mechanism, becoming the first country to do so. It also helped push the inclusion of green finance on the G20 agenda.

Figures from the Climate Bonds Initiative and China Central Depository & Clearing Co showed green bond issues in China reached $37.1 billion in 2017, up 4.5 percent from the previous record-breaking year. Of the total, $22.9 billion of the bonds were aligned with international definitions, accounting for 15 percent of the world's total and making China the second-largest green bond market in the world.