Agricultural Bank of China receives first funds through carbon reduction tool

BEIJING, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country's largest commercial lenders, has received nearly 11.37 billion yuan (about 1.79 billion U.S. dollars) of funds from the People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, through a supporting tool for carbon reduction.

The tool was rolled out in November last year by the central bank to provide low-cost loans for financial institutions and guide them to give loans to firms in key carbon-reduction fields.

The funds the Agricultural Bank of China has received are among the first batch of funds worth 85.5 billion yuan that the central bank provides to financial institutions through the tool.

The central bank adopts "the system for direct funds," which means financial institutions could apply for this low-cost funding from the central bank after the loans for carbon reductions are made.

It will provide 60 percent of the loan principal made by financial institutions for carbon-emission cuts, with a one-year lending rate of 1.75 percent.

The move supports the development of clean energy, energy conservation, and carbon-reduction technologies, among others, and mobilizes more social funds to promote carbon-emission cuts.

The Agricultural Bank of China said it received this funding from the central bank for the 18.95 billion yuan in loans it provided to clean energy, energy conservation and environmental protection projects.

Those projects include a wind and photovoltaic power demonstration project in Hebei, fishery and photovoltaic complementary project in Zhejiang, and pumped-storage hydropower station in Shanxi.

The bank said the loans have supported 263 projects and 197 companies.