CITIC Bank Commences Testing of China’s First “Personal Carbon Accounts”

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China CITIC Bank has announced that launch of internal testing of what it says is the country’s first “personal carbon accounts,” in a bid to encourage the adoption of low carbon lifestyles.

CITIC Bank said that the “China CITIC Carbon Account” (中信碳账户) is directed at individual clients, and has issued open invitations for 1000 customers to participate in testing in the Shenzhen area.

The test version of the account automatically gathers data on low carbon behaviour of clients with their authorisation, and then calculates their individual carbon mitigation volume, for the purpose of encouraging users to pursue greener lifestyles.

CITIC Bank said that the move could help encourage its credit card users achieve a cumulative reduction in carbon emissions of around 2 million tonnes.

The tests are being conducted under the guidance of Shenzhen’s environmental and banking regulators, as well as the Shenzhen emissions trading exchange and the Shanghai environmental resources exchange.

The move comes as experts in China call for individual consumers to be included in China’s carbon credit system, to help accomplish Beijing’s carbon mitigation targets of peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.

“Including individual carbon emissions reductions in the carbon system system will play an extremely important role in raising social awareness of dealing with climate change,” said Xu Guangqing (许光), chair of the Environmental and Resource Economics faculty at Renmin University, to Securities Daily.

“Additionally, if individual participate in trading on the carbon market, it can increase the liquidity of the market, and encourage the public to engage in low-carbon lifestyles.”