香港地球之友綠色金融顧問 / Green Finance Advisor of Friends of the Earth (HK)
法國農業信貸銀行（Credit Agricole）是一家主要的全球金融機構，最近宣布將放棄為煤炭行業提供融資：不僅包括煤礦業務，還包括煤電廠和煤炭運輸基礎設施。法國農業信貸銀行不是第一個拒絕煤炭的金融機構。根據能源經濟與金融分析研究所（IEEFA）的數據，全球100多家金融機構已經削減了對煤炭的資金支持。（點擊此處查看報告）
不用煤炭的原因很簡單 — 煤的真實成本很高。我們不僅談論開採方面可衡量成本，而且更重要的是對生態系統的破壞和燃燒煤炭的後果。從燃煤釋放到空氣中的碳排放是氣候變化的主要來源。憑藉更好的技術，我們現在可以以更低的成本使用清潔能源。完全放棄燃燒供電正變得越來越可行。
雖然煤炭仍然是其主要的電力來源，但中國一直在積極投資替代能源 — 中國已經是世界上最大的太陽能和風力發電國。香港的反應較遲緩，但正在迎頭趕上。去年，中電推出了可再生能源上網計劃（點擊此處了解詳情），購買通過可再生能源產生的上網電力。換句話說，家庭和公司不僅可以減少電費，還可以通過安裝自己的太陽能系統並有機會向中電售電來賺取豐厚的收入。從那時起，太陽能在香港迅速擴張。
這是我們綠色金融顧問希望看到的內容。這就是綠色金融的意義：投入資金建立可持續發展的世界。
Credit Agricole, a major global financial institution, recently announced that it will walk away from financing the coal sector — not only the miners but also power plants and infrastructure for coal transport. Credit Agricole is not the first to say no to coal. According to Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), over 100 global financial institutions have already cut back the funding support for coal. (Click here for the report)
The reason for stopping coal is simple — the true cost of coal is high. We are not only talking about the direct measurable cost of getting it out of the ground but more importantly the consequence of damaging the ecosystem and all the cost of burning coal. The carbon releases to the air is among the major source of climate change. With better technology, we can now generate cleaner energy at lower cost. Powering our world without coal is becoming more real.
While coal is still its key source of power, China has been actively diversifying into alternative energy — it is already the world’s largest solar and wind power producer. Hong Kong has been slow in reacting but is catching up. Last year CLP introduced a scheme (Click here for the details) to buy electricity generated by renewable energy. In other words, households and companies can not only reduce their electricity bills but also make good income by installing their own solar power system and sell to CLP. Since then solar power has expanded rapidly in Hong Kong.
This is what we, green finance advisors would like to see. This is what green financing is about — putting capital to build a sustainable world.
圖片來源 / Image Source：https://www.zephrocious.com/coal
