One of China’s big six state-owned banks has issued a new directive to drive the accelerated development of its green finance operations.
Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) recently issued the “Guidance Opinions on Accelerating the Push for Green Finance Operations Development” (关于加快推进绿色金融业务发展的指导意见).
According to ABC the Opinions “closely focus on achieving peak carbon and carbon neutrality targets, and positioning ABC strategically as a leading green finance brand.”
The Opinions call for strong support of six areas in particular, including clean energy, green upgrades to infrastructure, energy reduction and environmental protection, clean manufacturing, the ecosystem environment and green services.
The release of the Opinions comes amidst a push for greater development of China’s green finance sector from Beijing, after it set the ambitious goals of achieving peak carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060.
ABC’s green financial operations have seen rapid growth since the start of 2021. As of the end of the first quarter ABC’s green loan growth was 11.59%, 6.03 percentage points higher than general growth in lending.
