China’s president Xi Jinping has made the country’s carbon ambitions clear: to hit peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. China’s banks are also doing their part and putting capital to work.
By the end of 2020, outstanding green loans in China grew 3.5% to almost Rmb12 trillion ($1.9 trillion), the largest in the world. Agricultural Bank of China, the third-largest bank in the country by assets, has the highest percentage of green loans on its book: about 10% of its total credit, or Rmb1.5 trillion of loans, is labeled green.
The bank’s green lending jumped 27% in 2020, far above the industry average. This growth was largely thanks to the bank’s increasing focus on green finance, as it identified six key green industries to support and applied green lending targets for over 50 industries. ABC also actively funded M&As of green companies, providing them with more than Rmb6 billion in credit.
The bank is a member of the Yangtze Ecological Environment Protection Alliance, an organization founded in 2019 and chaired by China Three Gorges Corp – the country’s biggest new energy conglomerate.