China's Industrial Bank has decided to adopt the "Equator Principles," the first Chinese financial institution to do so, to promote the country's green credit program.

The principles are a voluntary set of guidelines, which require signatory banks to consider environmental and social issues when financing development projects.

The new move will have positive impacts on the sustainable development of the bank in the long-term, according to the bank president Li Renjie.

He said the bank would optimize credit procedures and related systems within a year in accordance with the Equator Principles.

International Finance Corp. (IFC), a funding arm of the World Bank and the initiator of the principal, said the Industrial Bank's move marked a breakthrough in the development of green banking in China, which promoted the development of innovative products to support energy efficiency for small and medium enterprises.

The bank, in which Hong Kong's Hang Seng Bank holds a 12.78 percent stake, has been a leader in extending loans to support emission reduction and energy saving programs in China. The bank had loaned some 2.8 billion yuan (US$4.12 billion) for related projects through September.

Those initiatives were designed to save 3.35 million tonnes of standard coal and eliminate 10.82 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

China has promised to cut its energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and major pollutant emission by 10 percent by 2010.

China's commercial banks have been told not to offer loans to high-energy consuming and polluting enterprises.

(Xinhua News Agency November 2, 2008)