Out of the Window? Green Monetary Policy in China: Window Guidance and the Promotion of Sustainable Lending and Investment

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Main author: Dikau, Simon
Other authors: Volz, Ulrich
Format: Monographs and Working Papers           
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id eprints-35145
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description Chinese monetary and financial authorities have been among the pioneers in promoting green finance. This paper investigates the use of one specific monetary policy tool, namely window guidance, by the People’s Bank of China (PBC) and the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) to encourage financial institutions to expand credit to sustainable activities and curb lending to heavy-polluting industries. We investigate window guidance targets for the period 2001-2020 and find that ‘green window guidance’ was used by the CBRC from at least 2006 and by the PBC from 2007 to discourage lending to carbon-intensive and polluting industries and/or to increase support to sustainable activities. Both authorities stopped discouraging lending to carbon-intensive/polluting industries in 2014. Sustainable objectives were subsequently also removed from the PBC’s list of priority sectors at the start of 2019, ending the practice of green window guidance in China. Sustainability-enhancing window guidance targets were replaced and formalised through new ‘Guidelines for Establishing the Green Financial System’, reflecting efforts to move away from controls-based towards market-based policy instruments. Based on this analysis, the paper draws four lessons for the design of green finance policies for other countries that seek to enhance sustainable finance and mitigate climate change and related risks.
format Monographs and Working Papers
author Dikau, Simon
author_facet Dikau, Simon
Volz, Ulrich
authorStr Dikau, Simon
author_letter Dikau, Simon
author2 Volz, Ulrich
author2Str Volz, Ulrich
title Out of the Window? Green Monetary Policy in China: Window Guidance and the Promotion of Sustainable Lending and Investment
publisher London School of Economics
publishDate 2021
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/35145/

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