China's environment watchdog is to draw up a blacklist on high-energy
consuming and polluting industries that will effectively ban them from obtaining
bank loans.
A new government policy requires the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) to regularly hand over lists of heavy polluters to the
People's Bank of China, or China's central bank, and the China Banking
Regulatory Commission.
Based on the information, companies that fail to pass environmental
assessment or to implement China's environmental protection regulations are
disqualified from getting loans from any bank or financial institution.
Companies that already have loans, but are later discovered to have violated
environmental protection regulations will have their loans called in, according
to the so-called "green credit policy".
The SEPA had already submitted to the financial institutions a blacklist of
30 companies that had violated environmental rules, said SEPA's vice-director
Pan Yue on Monday.
"Administrative means cannot permanently rein in the deteriorating
environmental situation in China, so we should make more use of economic
levers," Pan said.
"Increasing the fund-raising costs for heavy industries and even cutting off
sources of credit for companies that seriously violate the laws has become an
urgent need for curbing their investment impulse," he said.
China's deteriorating environmental situation had spurred the government to
find solutions.
Pan said the SEPA would join with the Ministry of Finance, the China
Insurance Regulatory Commission, and the China Securities Regulatory Commission
to work out other economic policies to promote environmental protection.