A senior executive from one of China’s leading joint-stock banks has highlighted the role that commercial lenders will play in reducing the country’s carbon emissions by transforming consumer behaviour.
“Following the opening of the national carbon trading market, the nature of enterprise carbon quotas as assets is gradually becoming clearer,” said Lu Leshu (卢乐书), head of Ping An Bank’s Strategic Development Department, at a recent event held by Peking University.
“Personal carbon emissions are also likely to become money-like carbon-assets, and personal carbon accounts must play a role in this.
“Commercial banks possess natural advantage, and will be able to create publicly trusted accounts by making use of internal operating systems, strict external regulatory systems and their rich experience in the operation of accounts systems.”
According to Lu the Chinese central bank’s Quzhou (衢州) office is currently guiding Ping An Bank in the development of personal carbon accounts that will permit consumers to obtain green loans for different rates, terms and amounts based on their individual green ratings.
“This will encourage users to engage in green consumption and pursue low carbon behaviour…the platform can record and quantify green behaviour to calculate green energy volumes and carbon reduction volumes for users, as well as provide a diverse range of green credits.
“The green accounts of commercial banks use IT-based methods to achieve an organic integration between customer management and green equity, and serve as an innovative attempt at achieving Pareto improvements that combine commerce with public interest.”
