BEIJING — Chinese banks have steadily increased credit support for green industries, data from the banking regulator have showed.

The outstanding green credit of 21 major Chinese banks stood at 8.22 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion) at the end of June 2017, up from 5.2 trillion yuan at the end of 2013, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC).

The projects supported by these loans could save about 215 million tonnes of standard coal and reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 491 million tonnes per year, the CBRC said.

The bad loan rate of green credit has stayed at a low level. By the end of June last year, non-performing loan ratio for loans to energy conservation and environmental protection projects and services was only 0.37 percent, about 1.32 percentage points lower than that of other loans during the same period.

Green credit is loans to energy conservation and environmental protection projects and services, as well as emerging industries of new energy, new energy vehicles, energy conservation and environmental protection, building a green financing mechanism for the transition to sustainable growth, including tax breaks and other instruments such as green credit and green bonds.