OREANDA-NEWS.  October 18, 2012. The Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy of the Ministry of Environmental Protection released the “2012 China Green Credit Annual Report” where the green credit performances of the top 50 Chinese banks with the greatest market values in 2010 were ranked in line with the five indexes of green credit strategy, green credit management, green financial service, construction of organizational capability, and communication and cooperation. Industrial Bank (IB) was at the top of the ranking and the only bank rated as Class A (above 80), reported the press-centre of Industrial Bank.

Similarly, this rank of IB coincides with the result of investigation organized by a number of non-governmental environmental protection organizations not long ago. On September 10, ten non-governmental organizations, including Green Watershed, Friends of Nature, Green Earth Volunteers, and Global Environmental Institute (GEI), released the “Green Credit Performance Ranking of Listed Chinese-funded Banks (2008-2011)”, in which IB also ranked top among the 16 listed Chinese-funded banks.

In the appraisal system, banks were assessed in terms of ten indexes: disclosure of environmental information, environmental policies, environmental measures, special department responsible for green credit, adoption of environmental guidelines of the international banking, retreating from loans to projects of “heavy pollution, high energy consumption and excess production capacity”, extension of loans to environmental protection or green industries, public opinion, internal environmental protection activities, and activities for building green credit (advocating) environment among craft brothers and customers.

In searching for the root cause, the reporter discovers that, as the first Chinese Equator bank, IB has kept exploring and practicing in the field of green finance for almost seven years, establishing a special energy-efficient financing team in 2005, setting up a sustainable finance center in 2009, and upgrading the sustainable finance center into sustainable finance department, a Class I department, in 2012. The bank has launched the sustainable finance which is devoted to supporting sustainable development with financial innovation and boosting the development of low-carbon economy and recycling economy with diversified financial tools.

By now, the bank has established five specialized teams including project financing, carbon finance, market research, technical services, and Equator Principles review, and built an assets operation platform integrating the six functions: product design, technical support, assets management, marketing organization, trading service, and business cooperation.

Meanwhile, IB has, according to the subdivision, formulated the technical admittance criteria and established green finance credit admittance. Holding a scientific and religious attitude, we have refined and elevated our understanding of the industry and business knowledge, standardized them one by one, and established a green finance certification system, realizing certification over green finance projects one by one. Moreover, we have carried out “measurable, reportable and examinable” environmental benefits calculation. In the meantime, it has improved the credit management system. Each green credit passing the green finance certification is labeled in the credit system. In this way, the green finance businesses are under unified management and analysis.

At the level of branch, IB has set up departments in all branches for controlling environmental and social risks in a planned manner and driving forward green finance businesses, and appointed product managers in charge of green finance. With sustained capacity construction, the Head Office and branches of IB have all realized specialized operation of green finance as a whole.

At present, the green finance businesses of IB covers three major fields of low-carbon economy, recycling economy and ecological economy, supporting a variety of projects in mainstream economic zones such as Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Bohai Economic Rim, Northeast China, Central China, West China and the Western Taiwan Straits. These projects involve improvement of energy efficiency, development and utilization of new energy and renewable energy, carbon emission reduction, sewage treatment and water area control, reduction of sulfur dioxide emission, recycling of solid wastes, and national key energy conservation program. The bank has established its business feature of strengthening green financial support in the field of real economy.

As shown by the latest data of IB, by the end of August 2012, the bank accumulatively extended nearly 4,000 green finance projects, with an amount of almost RMB 200 billion. The financing balance at the end of the month reached as high as RMB 101.8 billion, continuing a high growth rate.

If the above data are converted into specific energy conservation and emission reduction indexes, each year the green finance projects of IB can save 22.7227 million tons of standard coal across China, reduced 65.0824 million tons of carbon dioxide, 879,400 tons of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 14,500 tons of ammonia nitrogen, 43,600 tons of sulfur dioxide, and 6,900 tons of oxynitride, utilized 14.6629 million tons of solid waste in an integrated manner, and saved 255.7906 million tons of water.

The related official of the Sustainable Finance Department of IB indicated: “the annual emission reduced is equivalent to shutting off 149 thermal power plants of 100 MW or stopping running the 70,000 taxis in Beijing for 44.7 years.”