Report: New Financiers and the Environment

Ten Perspectives on How Financial Institutions Can Protect the Environment

Financial institutions from countries such as China, Brazil, India and Thailand are playing an increasingly active role in financing infrastructure and mining projects around the world. With new loan approvals of $36 billion, China Exim Bank for example became the world’s largest export credit agency in 2007. Although they invest in environmentally sensitive sectors, many emerging financiers do not yet apply internationally accepted standards in their projects.

This new report discusses the experience with environmental standards and how it can be useful for new financiers. It contains ten papers written by experts from civil society, financial institutions and academia. The authors present case studies of overseas projects funded by Chinese, Indian and Thai financiers, and analyze the experience with environmental standards which could be applied by these financiers.