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Out of the window? Green monetary policy in China: window guidance and the promotion of sustainable lending and investment

Dikau, Simon and Volz, Ulrich (2021) Out of the window? Green monetary policy in China: window guidance and the promotion of sustainable lending and investment. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper (360). Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK.

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Abstract

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.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL: https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publicatio...
Additional Information: © 2021 The Authors
Divisions: Grantham Research Institute
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
H Social Sciences > HG Finance
J Political Science > JQ Political institutions Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific
JEL classification: G - Financial Economics > G1 - General Financial Markets > G10 - General
G - Financial Economics > G2 - Financial Institutions and Services > G20 - General
G - Financial Economics > G3 - Corporate Finance and Governance > G30 - General
Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q0 - General > Q01 - Sustainable Development
Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q50 - General
Date Deposited: 29 Jul 2021 08:15
Last Modified: 14 Sep 2024 04:14
URI: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/111489

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