China's rural policy bank ups financial support for green projects

BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Agricultural Development Bank of China (ADBC), a rural policy bank, issued a total of 662.15 billion yuan (about 92.24 billion U.S. dollars) of green loans during the first nine months of the year, an increase of 121.49 billion yuan from a year ago.

By the end of September, the bank's green loan balance had reached 2.3 trillion yuan, accounting for 26.55 percent of the total loan balance, the ADBC said.

In recent years, the bank has supported a number of green projects with good environmental and social benefits. The projects were mainly from five areas, namely, protection and restoration of important ecosystems; pollution prevention and control of major rivers, lakes and reservoirs; conservation and recycling of agricultural resources; building of livable countryside, and clean and low-carbon energy transformation.

According to the ADBC, by the end of September, it had supported a total of 10,640 green projects, which saved more than 13 million tonnes of standard coal, reduced 30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and saved about 250 million tonnes of water.