China’s green finance continued to see rapid growth last year with outstanding green loans in yuan and foreign currencies up 38.5 percent to 22.03 trillion yuan (US$3.27 trillion), a central bank report showed Friday, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The growth rate was 5.5 percentage points higher than a year ago and 28.1 percentage points faster than the average growth rate of all types of loans, said the report by the People’s Bank of China.
A green loan refers to a form of financing where funds go to areas that make contributions to environmental protection and improvement.
China has advanced rapidly in developing its green financial system and markets, as part of efforts to achieve its carbon peaking and neutrality goals.
According to the report, green loans for projects with direct or indirect carbon-reduction benefits stood at 8.62 trillion yuan and 6.08 trillion yuan, respectively. Together, they accounted for 66.7 percent of the total green loans.
Outstanding green loans for infrastructure upgrading, clean energy and energy conservation expanded 32.8 percent, 34.9 percent and 59.1 percent year-on-year, respectively.
The report also showed slower growth in property loans and consumption loans. At the end of 2022, outstanding property loans increased 1.5 percent year-on-year to 53.16 trillion yuan, and outstanding residential consumption loans (excluding individual housing loans) expanded 4.1 percent to 17.25 trillion yuan.
China will continue increasing the deployment of renewable power in 2023 on strong demand, lower raw-material costs and a low-base effect for wind power, according to Fitch Ratings.
China’s large state-owned power generation companies remain committed to the country’s energy transition strategy and are the largest investors in renewable power, Xinhua News Agency quoted Fitch Ratings as saying, adding that the companies’ active bidding bodes well for new installations in 2023.
In 2022, a total of 446 wind power projects with a capacity of 87 GW completed equipment bidding in 2022, compared with around 60 GW in 2021, Fitch Ratings cited data from wind power information provider Windmango.
The installed capacity of wind and solar power in China rose 22 percent year-on-year last year.