Monday, November 8th, 2021
In the fight against CO2 emissions
China’s central bank promotes “green loans”
Beijing has set ambitious targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions. In order for the country to achieve this, the Chinese central bank is introducing a new monetary policy instrument: It provides companies with cheap loans for climate protection.
The Chinese central bank wants to help the climate-friendly restructuring of the second largest economy in the world on the jumps. It also announced cheap loans for banks, which in turn support companies in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Specifically, the central bank wants to grant cheap loans with an interest rate of 1.75 percent for one year for 60 percent of the funds approved by the finance houses.
These loans can also be renewed twice. For comparison: the reference interest rate for loans with a one-year term is currently 3.85 percent. The People’s Republic is the world’s largest emitter of climate-warming greenhouse gases. However, the world export champion also produces a large number of goods for other countries such as the USA and European nations. China wants to have peaked CO2 emissions by 2030 and be climate neutral by 2060. The world climate summit is currently taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.
China’s President Xi Jinping did not personally attend and was therefore criticized. Before the UN meeting, China repeated its previous goals, which also met with criticism. The US said the country could do more. According to its own statements, China still has a lot to do in terms of climate protection. Although there have been some improvements, it will be difficult to achieve the goals it has set itself, admitted the State Council of the People’s Republic, according to the state news agency Xinhua.
“The protection of the ecosystem and the climate still has a long way to go,” said the State Council. The People’s Republic therefore set itself further goals, including air purity and water. The proportion of good water quality in the coastal regions is to increase to 79 percent and the proportion of heavily polluted water is to decrease to virtually zero.