Bank of China Expands Green Finance Into Biodiversity
The transition to a low-carbon economy relies on more than policy commitment. It requires finance that can move at scale, support new technologies and fund projects whose environmental benefits may take years to emerge.
BOC is playing an increasingly significant role in this process, leveraging its leadership in green finance. To meet the needs of green development, BOC continues to enhance its product suite across lending, bonds, consumer finance and integrated services, while further strengthening its global “BOC Green+” brand.
The aim is clear and practical: direct more capital towards energy conservation, carbon reduction, resource efficiency and greener infrastructure – while also helping clients manage environmental and climate risks.
BOC embeds those priorities across credit assessment and approval processes. It also incorporates clients’ ESG risks into end-to-end management, conducts climate-risk stress tests and is advancing carbon accounting. Such attention to governance matters, since green finance can only scale credibly when its objectives are backed by disciplined risk management.
Using the Capital Markets to Widen Participation
Bonds are a key part of BOC’s approach. In 2025, the bank issued RMB30 billion in onshore green bonds and a US$550 million offshore sustainability bond. In the first six months of 2026, BOC had underwritten nearly RMB80 billion of onshore green bonds and just over US$12 billion offshore, ranking second among Chinese banks. Its green bond investment balance reached RMB183 billion.
Recent transactions also highlight how the bank is connecting domestic priorities with global pools of capital.
For example, BOC supported China’s Ministry of Finance with its inaugural RMB6 billion green sovereign bond in London, plus issued the world’s first dual-currency sustainability bond denominated in RMB and sterling.
The bank also arranged the largest offshore RMB syndicated loan for a non-Chinese company, supporting clean-energy procurement and greener supply chains.
From Fundraising to Measurable Outcomes
BOC’s project portfolio illustrates the range of needs green finance can address.
In Fuliang County, an RMB80 million, 10-year BOC loan supports ancient tea-tree conservation and rural development. It has funded a germplasm bank covering 57 local tea varieties, protected 18 ancient tea-tree clusters and is expected to create almost 200 jobs.
In Inner Mongolia, meanwhile, BOC completed China’s first nature-positive commercial ESG-linked loan, with pricing tied to desert forage cultivation and organic milk production. By the end of 2025, the borrower had converted 350,000 mu (a traditional Chinese unit of land area, equal to about 667 square metres) of desert into pasture and planted more than 98 million sand-fixing trees.
Further south, in Suzhou, BOC led a RMB420 million green bond for the operator of Taihu National Wetland Park. The park protects more than 163 hectares, supports carbon sequestration and provided habitat for 182 bird species by the end of 2025.
Together, these cases show how a state-owned bank can translate sustainability policy into investable structures with measurable environmental and economic outcomes. They also demonstrate how green finance is becoming more deeply embedded in the way BOC allocates capital, manages risk and supports development at home and overseas.
Read more about how BOC is advancing green finance to support the global green and low-carbon transition. Click on the logo below.
