World Bank approves 630 mln USD for China environmental projects

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The World Bank has approved loans worth 630 million U.S. dollars to finance two environmental projects in China to help reduce plastic pollution and support green investment in the country.

The World Bank will provide 430 million dollars of loans for the China Plastic Waste Reduction Project to help improve plastic-waste management and reduce plastic pollution from municipal solid waste, according to the bank.

The bank has also approved a 200-million-U.S. dollar loan to support the establishment of a Green and Low-Carbon Investment Fund to help catalyze private capital and expand the supply of equity financing to green businesses and projects in China.

The plastic-pollution reduction project will combine policy and regulatory work at the national level with investments and technical assistance at the sub-national and local level, which will take place in two project cities, namely Ningbo and Chongqing.

"This is the first World Bank-financed project to support plastic waste management in China. By focusing on policies, regulations and programs to reduce pollution and promoting environmentally sustainable practices, this project will contribute to China's efforts to transition towards a low carbon and circular economy," said Martin Raiser, World Bank Country Director for China.

The project will directly benefit 13.2 million residents in these cities by helping improve the functionality of their respective solid-waste management systems, addressing plastic leakage hotspots in waste flows and pushing recycling to a higher level.

Experiences gained and lessons learned through this project are expected to be replicated and inform reforms and practices in other provinces as well as further policy work at the national level, according to the bank.

For the Green and Low-Carbon Investment Fund, the World Bank said the fund will help catalyze additional private capital from domestic and foreign institutional investors, providing much-needed long-term equity financing to smaller private green innovators and qualified green projects.

The fund will be independently managed by a competitively selected fund manager, who will be responsible for all investment decisions and apply the World Bank's environmental and social safeguard policies to its entire portfolio, said the bank.