The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it has granted a €350m loan to pilot clean heating and cooling systems for reducing carbon emissions in the highly polluted Shandong Province in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Image: ADB provides loan for Pilot Clean Heating Systems. Photo: Courtesy of rawpixel on Unsplash.
The project is the fourth in a multiyear and multisector ADB program to improve air quality in the greater Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, a region that generates about one-third of the PRC’s gross domestic product but is home to cities that regularly suffer some of the world’s highest levels of air pollution. Winter heating is one of the major sources of severe air pollution.
ADB senior operations coordination specialist Lin Lu said: “The new technologies and innovative business model that we are using in the project have a huge potential to be scaled up and replicated within the PRC and elsewhere in the Asia and Pacific region.”
“It will directly benefit around 650,000 people and cut about 4 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.”
The project is notable in its use of advanced technologies to provide clean heating and cooling. These technologies bring many benefits to the economy including improved health from steady, pollution-free heat; cost-savings due to lesser use of electricity; and greater use of indigenous resources such as geothermal, biomass, and waste heat.
Alongside the loan, ADB will administer a technical assistance to help develop a plan for rural clean heating in northern PRC for future scale-up through the integration of advanced technologies, innovative financing, and appropriate business models; disseminate the lessons learned and experience gained from this project; and strengthen the capacity of the heating companies to operate and maintain advanced technologies.
The total cost of the project, which is expected to be completed in April 2024, is $710.76 million.
ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 67 members—48 from the region. In 2017, ADB operations totaled $32.2 billion, including $11.9 billion in cofinancing.