The Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday launched an 800 million yuan program to support lending to energy-efficient building projects in China.

Partnering with Standard Chartered Bank (China) and Johnson Controls, a world-leading energy management company, ADB will extend partial credit guarantees for loans for retrofitting existing buildings to save energy, as well as for the construction of new energy-efficient ones.

Robert Wihtol, country director of ADB's China Resident Mission, said that given China's rapid urbanization, energy efficiency in buildings will have a long-lasting and cumulative effect.

The program will improve access to domestic finance for a large number of energy end users seeking to make efficiency improvements, with the retrofitting of existing building typically leading to energy savings of 20 to 40 percent.

"With China's increasing focus on energy efficiency and environmental protection, we are contributing to this effort by providing energy-efficient systems and green solutions to our customers," said Elvis Chan, vice-president and managing director of Johnson Control Building Efficiency China.

At the same time, commercial lenders in China require further expertise to make technical evaluations of energy-efficiency projects, in order to ensure the availability of project financing.

Standard Chartered Bank (China) will be providing financing to Johnson Control's buyers in China.

(China Daily October 8, 2008)