China Development Bank
Founded:
1994
Mission:
“Enhancing national competitiveness and improving people's livelihood”.
Total assets:
CDB has 421.248 billion RMB in registered capital.
Headquarters:
Beijing, China
Top five shareholders:
Shareholders are the Ministry of Finance of China, Central Huijin Investment Ltd., Buttonwood Investment Holding Company Ltd., and the National Council for Social Security Fund, which respectively hold 36.54%, 34.68%, 27.19%, and 1.59% of CDB’s total shares.
Summary of Paris alignment assessment:
China Development Bank has a significant amount of work to do to implement its commitment of aligning to the Paris Agreement on climate change. Based on the available evidence it would appear that this work has only just begun. The Bank could prioritise putting in place and publishing a climate change strategy, disclosing more information with regards to its projects and internal policies and introducing fossil fuel exclusion policies in line with a 1.5°C Paris goals scenario.
This page is part of the E3G Public Bank Climate Tracker Matrix, our tool to help you assess the Paris alignment of public banks, MDBs and DFIs.
| Metric | Summary |
|---|---|
 Promotion of green finance |
Some progress – CDB has a robust green bond framework, which excludes coal and an elaborate vision for a green finance system |
 Fossil to non-fossil energy finance ratio and scaling up climate finance |
Unaligned – Fossil fuel investment outweighs climate-related energy investment. CDB has the largest level of fossil fuel financing of all institutions in this Matrix. |
 Nature based solutions |
Some progress – Some commitment towards biodiversity and protecting forestry. |
 Climate risk, resilience, and adaptation |
Unaligned – No processes to screen or manage climate risks at project level, no disclosure of adaptation finance |
 Overarching climate strategy |
Unaligned – There is no evidence of a standalone climate strategy but a carbon neutrality action plan has been released. The overarching strategy could be stronger on climate change. A final date for full Paris alignment is missing. |
 Integration of climate mitigation and resilience in key sectoral strategies |
Unaligned – There is no information or evidence of sector-specific strategies |
 Institutional leadership |
Some progress – CDB is the leading institution for green finance in China. Internationally, however, the Bank does not seem to be actively partnering with other development finance institution |
 Energy access and fuel poverty |
Unaligned – CDB does not have a dedicated strategy nor targets to promote energy access. |
 Energy efficiency strategy, standards and investment |
Unaligned – Only subsidiary CDBC has draft standards in power and buildings but they have never been finalised. |
 Fossil fuel exclusion policies |
Unaligned – CDB has no oil or gas exclusions and there are examples of CDB loans for coal, oil extraction and gas projects. |
 Greenhouse gas accounting and reduction |
Unaligned – There is no evidence of GHG accounting (except for projects financed by green bonds). |
 Shadow carbon pricing |
Unaligned – No information on the application of an internal carbon price can be found. |
 Country level work |
Unaligned – CDB lacks a coherent approach to integrate climate into its partner country engagement. |
 Technical assistance for implementing Paris goals |
Unaligned – No information could be located on CDB technical assistance. |
 Transparency of climate finance data |
Unaligned – No project level information is available and there is no disclosure of financial intermediary sub-projects. |
Top recommendations
- A fossil fuel exclusion policy needs to be implemented to ensure that CDB investments do not go to projects that are not compatible with the Paris Agreement’s goals and scenarios consistent with 1.5°C global temperature goals.
- CDB should extend the GHG accounting currently applied to green bonds projects to all projects and report portfolio-level absolute GHG emissions in annual reports.
- CDB should scale up climate-related and energy-related clean investments in order to ensure that green finance at least outweighs brown finance, with the aim of reducing ‘brown’ energy finance to zero.
- CDB should include climate risk in its regular CDB country risk analysis reports.
Last updated: June 2020.