Carbon finance; Commercial banks; Carbon trading; meaning
In recent years, the government of China has attached great importance to the economic and social impacts of climate change, formulated the national climate change policy, established the China CDM Fund, and set up environmental exchanges in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. The domestic financial industry has also seized the opportunity of financial innovation in the field of climate change, formulated and implemented green credit policies, and developed products linked to energy efficiency loans and carbon emission reduction. However, on the whole, these local innovations in carbon financial products and services are inconsistent with the potential of China's carbon market in depth, breadth and scale. At the same time, the hard constraints of energy conservation and emission reduction targets and the demand for funds objectively require the establishment of a sound carbon financial innovation mechanism to adapt to them.
It is an inevitable choice for Chinese commercial banks to invest credit funds in fields and industries that conform to the national green environmental protection policy and support the introduction of energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies and projects to conform to the new trend of "low emission, low energy consumption and low pollution" in international economic development. The exploration of commercial banks in carbon finance practice mainly focuses on CDM project financing, and Industrial Bank is the representative in this field. In addition, China Agricultural Bank, China Minsheng Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank also launched CDM-based project financing business earlier. In addition to CDM project financing, some commercial banks have also launched financial products linked to carbon emission rights.
The significance of developing carbon finance business in China Commercial Bank is mainly reflected in:
First of all, it helps commercial banks to improve their risk management system.
At present, commercial banks have become an important participant in the carbon trading market, and their business scope has penetrated into all trading links of the market. Carbon finance has brought many development opportunities to various business departments of commercial banks. Low carbon can promote the development of emerging industries economically, such as direct investment and indirect investment opportunities in clean energy.
However, climate change intensifies the uncertainty of the real economy and increases the complexity of credit risk of commercial banks. For this kind of risk, some advanced foreign commercial banks have developed some assessment methods that incorporate climate factors, and our banking industry should learn from these methods. China's commercial banks carry out carbon finance business, which is helpful for commercial banks to improve their risk management system and promote the optimization of credit structure.
Second, help commercial banks expand their business channels.
The first is the bank's carbon fund investment business. Carbon funds mainly re-trade carbon emission rights in the secondary market of carbon trading and obtain considerable profits from it, which plays an important role in the formation of the price of carbon emission rights, and some of them directly invest in the primary market of carbon trading as the demanders of carbon emission rights.
Second, low-carbon project loans. Project financing means that the project itself has high feasibility of return on investment or is secured by a third party mortgage. The main mortgage forms of low-carbon project loans include: pledge of carbon rights such as project management right, project property right and CERs income right.
Third, the carbon financial intermediary business of commercial banks. The intermediary business of bank carbon trading mainly includes the following types: (1) carbon trading factoring, letter of credit and other settlement business. Factoring, also known as payment guarantee, means that the bank signs a contract with the seller's enterprise, and the seller's enterprise transfers the accounts receivable formed by the credit sale transaction to the bank, and the bank provides comprehensive financial services such as financing, accounts receivable management, accounts receivable collection and credit risk guarantee. (2) carbon fund custody. The purpose of establishing a fund custodian is to prevent the fund property from being used for other purposes and to protect the legitimate rights and interests of fund investors. (3) carbon trading intermediary services. The intermediary services of banks in carbon trading mainly include two aspects: one is to match the buyers and sellers of carbon trading in the primary market, to bridge the gap between the two sides of carbon trading, to provide intermediary services such as agency, financing guarantee and carbon trading consultation, and to obtain intermediary business income. With the growth of trading agency business and the accumulation of trading experience; The second is to build a trading platform in the secondary market. (4) Financial products business linked to carbon emission trading. Bank wealth management products are capital investment and management plans designed, developed and sold by banks for specific target customers. (5) Hedging transactions of derivative financial instruments such as carbon credit options and futures. Carbon credit itself has the characteristics of different actual use and ownership distribution, that is, it has some characteristics of financial derivatives. The value of "carbon credit" has almost nothing to do with the traditional stock and bond markets.
Fourth, buying and selling insurance business. Carbon trading is risky because of its long chain, many links, complicated procedures. Therefore, carbon trading insurance can provide a certain guarantee for carbon trading. Carbon trading insurance can not only provide insurance for the buyer of carbon emission reduction purchase agreement or carbon trading contract, but also compensate the buyer for not obtaining the quantity of CERs specified in the agreement when the agreement expires. It can also provide insurance for enterprises developing CDM projects and compensate for the failure of CDM projects to achieve expected benefits or unexpected losses.
Third, it will help commercial banks to strengthen cooperation with international banks.
Developing carbon finance business will help commercial banks to strengthen cooperation with international banking and build their own brands. Developing low-carbon finance is an inevitable choice for the sustainable development of commercial banks. To develop a low-carbon economy, financial services should go first. For commercial banks, the development of low-carbon finance brings not only business, but also opportunities for sustainable development. Therefore, the government should give policy support to commercial banks to develop low-carbon finance. In the development of low-carbon finance, the benefits and risks of commercial banks are sometimes not completely matched. Regulators can consider giving some policy support to the low-carbon financial business of commercial banks, such as tax relief. In addition, the regulatory authorities can also launch some special incentive policies and green channels for the initial public offering (IPO) of low-carbon enterprises and the issuance of corporate bonds and bills by low-carbon enterprises to support the financing work of low-carbon enterprises.
Fourth, it will help promote the healthy and orderly development of China's economy.
In recent years, commercial banks have actively responded to a series of financial policies issued by the state to promote economic development and achieved a substantial increase in credit scale. At the same time, the credit investment should gradually tilt to the fields and industries that meet the requirements of CDM projects, which will promote the development of CDM projects in China and realize the dual goals of maintaining economic growth rate in the short term and transforming economic development mode in the long term. In addition, promoting the development of new energy to drive the real economy out of the crisis has become the understanding of all countries. By developing CDM projects, especially hydropower, wind energy and solar energy projects, it will undoubtedly promote the development of China's new energy industry, promote the healthy and orderly development of China's economy and accelerate its integration with the international economy.
Five, help commercial banks to establish a good social reputation.
The function and purpose of carbon finance is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and gradually improve the deteriorating environmental problems. Carbon finance business and "green credit" developed by commercial banks in China are complementary, and its social benefits have more objective measurement standards and more solid institutional guarantee. Commercial banks engaged in carbon finance business, with the support of credit funds and related intermediary services, can promote the development of energy-saving and emission-reduction projects and ultimately achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction, which can produce very good social effects. At present, the degree of competition in China's banking industry is increasing day by day, and major commercial banks regard social responsibility as a brand-new competition point. Most of the annual social responsibility reports issued by commercial banks involve "energy conservation and emission reduction, environmental protection and green finance". Carbon finance is a good breakthrough for commercial banks to practice this concept.