After the national carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets were proposed, the call for the banking industry to support carbon neutral investment and financing services has also become stronger.
"The time is ripe to build an ecological bank in China. In the future, pollutant discharge rights, carbon assets, etc. may be used for mortgage loans. On July 12, an industry expert told the first financial reporter.
From policy permitting pilots, to local active exploration, to the participation and promotion of all parties, the ecological bank is currently progressing smoothly.
A variety of ecological banking models such as Shunchang "Forest Ecological Bank", Glossy "Water Ecological Bank", Wuyishan "Wufu Town Cultural Tourism Ecological Bank", Jianyang "Jianzhan Ecological Bank", Yanping Jukou Township "Gucuo Ecological Bank" and so on have blossomed. Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong and other provinces have also learned from the theory and practice path of ecological banks to carry out the construction of "Two Mountains Bank".
Open up channels for the transformation of resources, assets and capital
The national "14th Five-Year Plan" and the outline of long-term goals for 2035 clearly put forward the legal and policy guarantees for strengthening green development. Vigorously develop green finance.
The latest issue of "China's Land and Resources Economy" in an article "Ecological Bank Operation Mechanism and Localization Transformation Research" introduced that in recent years, China has explored ecological banks, carried out ecological bank pilots, and established the first "forest ecological bank" in Shunchang County, Nanping City, Fujian Province in 2018.
Under the review and supervision of the government, the bank sponsor generates ecological credit through the restoration, protection and construction of new ecological resources, and the resource developer purchases ecological credit, realizing the assetization and capitalization of ecological resources.
According to public data, as of now, the Nanping Forest Ecological Bank has imported about 65,600 mu of forest land, completed 257 forest rights guarantee business, issued 212.7 million yuan of forest rights mortgage loans, and collected and stored 88,000 mu of mortgaged forest land.
"Nanping Forest Ecological Bank has built a platform to promote the integration, transformation and upgrading of natural resource management, market-oriented transactions and sustainable operations, promote the assetization and marketization of ecosystem services, and make ecological products into productive forces, thus opening up the channel of resources into assets and assets into capital." The author of the article, Yan Ningyu, said.
However, the researchers also found that because it is still in the preliminary exploration stage, there are bottlenecks and challenges in market development and valuation mechanism of Nanping Forest Ecological Bank. In addition, the ecological bank is still unable to obtain a formal financial license, so the financial attributes are not strong.
Some local rural commercial banks have changed to ecological banks
At No. 90 Jianshe Road, Zixi County, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province, there is also an ecological bank with a big sign of "Two Mountains Bank" in Zixi County. Jin Jianhua, director of the Zixi County Financial Office, told the first financial reporter that "Two Mountains Bank" is actually a comprehensive working platform for the transformation of "resources-assets-capital-capital", which is composed of three centers, namely the ecological resource collection and storage center, the "ecological pass" operation center and the green financial service center.
Through redemption, leasing, trusteeship, equity cooperation, franchising, etc., the ecological resource collection and storage center collects and integrates fragmented and sporadic ecological resources to maximize the intensification and scale of resources. The responsibility of the "Eco-Link" operation center is to transfer the operation rights and use rights of the above-mentioned ecological resources to the "Eco-Pass" platform through leasing, trusteeship, equity cooperation, franchising, etc.
The Green Financial Services Center is responsible for carrying out the innovation of pledge financing for the ownership of ecological resources and the right to operate, opening up the financing channels of ecological capital, introducing financial capital and social capital, forming a diversified investment and financing pattern, and providing financial solutions for the realization of the value of ecological products.
According to Jin Jianhua, the "Ecological Pass" platform is also responsible for exploring the pledge loan of equity assets such as river rights, water surface management rights, sand mining rights, mining rights, breeding rights, forest rights, public welfare forests and natural forest income rights.
Xiong Guoran, chairman of Zixi Rural Commercial Bank, told the first financial reporter that the bank stipulates that all public welfare forests and natural commodities that have obtained forest rights certificates and do not have any ownership disputes can be used as collateral for loans.
The bank clarified that in view of the financial needs of scattered forest farmers to cultivate bamboo forests and repair bamboo forest roads, it can provide small credit loan financial support for farmers ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 yuan. In addition, the bank has also developed a "treasury loan linked" warehousing pledge loan model, a "order loan" credit model, a "transportation receivable loan" loan model, and a "professional cooperative + guarantee fund + association member" credit model.
Experts recommend supporting the establishment of local ecological banks
"At present, China has made initial achievements in building the construction of green financial infrastructure, the classification standards have been initially formed, and the legal system, regulatory rules and evaluation system have been gradually established." At the "2021 China Ecological Environment Industry Summit Forum" hosted by the Environmental Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce on July 8, Wang Shuguang, co-head and managing director of THEC Capital Management Department, said.
At the same time, he said that the current investment in china's green finance is too concentrated, more than 40% of it is invested in the transportation industry, and it is limited by credit ratings, most of which are invested in mature enterprises, and lack of support for innovative and technological enterprises.
"To achieve the vision of carbon neutrality, we need to support bank investment and financing services." Tao Zhongwei, general manager of the low-carbon business department of Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, also wrote a few days ago that supporting and improving the development of the carbon market through green financial means and letting economic means play a market incentive role in the realization of the carbon neutrality vision is not only an inevitable requirement for the realization of carbon neutrality, but also an unprecedented development opportunity in the financial field.
Tao Zhongwei suggested that banks establish a complete set of credit carbon intensity model early warning systems and post-loan risk management mechanisms, and embed the supervision of carbon emission reduction of enterprises into the credit link. By supporting the financing of green and low-carbon transformation projects, we will invest in the construction of green and low-carbon economy demonstration parks and carbon-neutral demonstration parks to help transform and upgrade high-carbon industries such as traditional energy, industry, transportation and construction.
Experts such as Zhao Yang, senior engineer of the Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, have also recently suggested that on the supply side, local governments should be supported to establish ecological banks, establish physical (incremental) and value (value-added) accounts, scientifically calculate credit scores, and issue water funds, bonds and land trusts based on net gain expectations; on the demand side, promote social capital investment in the production and supply of ecological products, assess the environmental gains and losses of commercial project development, and support enterprises to apply for licenses, issue reports and information disclosure.
The above article of "China Land and Resources Economy" believes that to establish an ecological bank in China, it is urgent to explore a set of methods that can not only comprehensively account for the types of ecosystem services, but also provide a unified unit for the transaction of ecological products. At the same time, the construction of ecological banks also needs to avoid the risks of excessive privatization, commercialization and homogenization of ecological resources in the international ecological banks.