China cuts credit lines to non-environmentally friendly projects

Edie.net: China's central bank this month ordered financial institutions to cut credit lines to environmentally unfriendly projects. The bank's instruction to lending houses to suspend support to high energy or resource using or heavily polluting projects was issued last Friday, July 6, the state-owned news agency Xinhua reported.

The move is intended to pull the financial sector into line and demonstrate the country's determination to meet energy efficiency and pollutant reduction targets. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier this year: "The current macro-control policy must focus on energy conservation and emission reduction in order to develop the economy while protecting the environment."

The central bank also wants commercial institutions to simplify lending procedures and offer preferential terms for environmentally-friendly projects. It says banks should channel credit to projects using technologies that save energy and protect the environment or which innovate in those areas. And it called on lending houses to include environmental protection information in a company's credit record...