More credit resources going to green projects in China

China has seen increasingly greater credit resources tilting toward green projects as it embarks on the path to go carbon neutral, according to a report made public on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the announcement of the country's ambitious climate targets.

"We aim to have carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060," President Xi Jinping announced when addressing the General Debate of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept 22, 2020.

"In the past year, China demonstrated its unprecedented power to take actions," said the report, which is titled "Carbon Neutrality: China in Action".

Relevant policies released by the People's Bank of China in the past year, for example, show that financial resources in the country are gradually tilting to the green and low-carbon field, said the report, which was jointly compiled by three institutions, including Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China.

By the end of the second quarter this year, China's green loan balance in domestic and foreign currencies reached 13.92 trillion yuan ($2.2 trillion), up 26.5 percent year-on-year. The growth rate is 14.6 percentage points higher than the average growth in lending, according to the report. 

Loans invested in projects that could result in direct and indirect carbon emission reductions stood at 6.79 trillion yuan and 2.58 trillion yuan respectively, it said.

"These together account for 67.3 percent of green loans, indicating that with the work related to the dual carbon goals officially entering the fast track, green financial support for low-carbon emission reductions have shown a massive leap forward," it said. 

Chinese financial institutions are continuously scaling up their green finance businesses, it said. As of the end of 2020, the green loan balance of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, for example, had reached 1.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 220 billion yuan from the beginning of the year. 

The Bank of China has issued climate bonds and green bonds in multiple currencies overseas, it continued.