A bird’s-eye view of a previous Shenzhen International Financial Expo at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center. File photos
At the 15th Shenzhen International Financial Expo (Shenzhen Finexpo), 92 solutions for green finance – from green credit to green insurance and from top design to implementation, which were contributed by governments, banks, insurance and fund management firms, will be displayed to show the financial industry’s efforts to push forward low-carbon transformation, energy conservation and emission reduction.
At this year’s expo, China Development Bank Shenzhen Branch has set up a green finance exhibition booth to display its efforts in implementing a new development philosophy and assisting in the development of a green economy, as well as its money lending products under its green finance program.
As early as December 2018, Shenzhen issued an implementation plan for constructing a green finance system and worked out incentives to award and subsidize financial institutions facilitating low carbon emission development. In October 2020, the city’s legislature passed regulations on green finance in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the first local regulations on green finance took effect in March last year.
The regulations require financial institutions to conduct environmental impact assessment over projects involving at least 50-million-yuan (US$7.85 million) investments and develop assessments over projects whose greenhouse emissions are expected to reach the equivalent of 3,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Publicly listed financial institutions registered in Shenzhen are compulsorily required to disclose their information relating to the environment and violators will be punished by regulators.
By June 2021, the city’s outstanding loans for green projects reached 388.3 billion yuan, up by 26 percent year on year. The city has issued 33.4 billion yuan for green bonds with 10 billion yuan being issued last year.
Some banks demonstrated a number of typical green finance cases in 2021 such as the asset-backed medium-term notes for industrial wastewater treatment issued by Ping An Trust Co. Ltd. and the garbage power generation project of China Development Bank Shenzhen Branch.