Guided by the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, "green credit" and "low-carbon finance" have gradually become a new growth curve for the banking industry to support the transformation and development of the real economy. Recently, China Construction Bank, China CITIC Bank and other banks have launched carbon account schemes. Insiders said that the attempt of the banking industry to carry out carbon account financial services will not only help to expand the coverage of carbon accounts, but also help to systematically promote the transformation of personal consumption behavior to green and low-carbon with the continuous efforts of financial institutions on the green consumption side. Build green and low-carbon application scenarios At the beginning of March this year, the "personal financial services based on 'carbon ledger' declared by China Construction Bank was selected into the fourth batch of innovative application cases of Beijing's financial technology innovation regulatory tools. At the same time, China CITIC Bank announced the launch of the internal beta version of "CITIC carbon account" for individual users. This is a personal carbon account launched by China CITIC Bank in cooperation with Shenzhen emission rights exchange and Shanghai environment and energy exchange. What is a carbon account? "Carbon account is a specific practice of carbon finance. It is a financial institutional arrangement that takes carbon credit investigation as the core, guides commercial banks to optimize and upgrade around the three key links of system, process and product, and realizes the optimal allocation of resources, so as to realize the operability, measurability and verifiability of carbon emission accounting of investment and financing business of commercial banks." Wang Huijun, executive deputy general manager of Beijing Green Exchange, said in an interview with the Economic Daily that the carbon account scenario application is divided into individuals and enterprises, which can cover different fields such as industry, agriculture, energy, construction, transportation and residents' life. According to the carbon emission data collection and accounting of different scenarios, the carbon trading market can be transformed into monetary value and form market price, so as to give play to the cost constraint and income incentive of price. Personally, the current form of carbon account is carbon emission reduction account. In short, it is to monitor the low-carbon behavior in personal clothing, food, housing and transportation activities, and quantitatively evaluate the behavior and effect of carbon emission reduction. Zheng Chenyang, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute, said that embedding carbon accounts into various application scenarios is conducive to enhancing the public's awareness of green and low carbon and improving the efficiency of carbon emission reduction. For example, personal green travel, waste classification, water-saving and power consumption, waste recycling, green loans and green bonds of enterprises can be transformed into carbon emission reduction, forming corresponding carbon points in exchange for credit preference, gift and service exchange, carbon market transaction and other rights and interests, so that customers can obtain benefits through their own low-carbon environmental protection behavior, and promote individuals to actively reduce energy consumption. At present, the introduction of carbon accounts by many banks is also a specific action to implement the green finance policy, especially for personal green retail business. By innovating green financial products and meeting personal green financing needs, it is in line with the strategy of expanding domestic demand under the new development pattern of double cycle and the positioning of Bank Retail transformation. The relevant person in charge of China Construction Bank said that relying on the construction of the model room of low-carbon life ecological scene, the green behavior of users in the daily low-carbon life and financial scene can be identified through the CCB life app, mobile banking app and other terminals. At the same time, digital technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence are used to calculate carbon emission reduction, form a personal carbon account and record the personal carbon footprint of consumers. Banks have "tested the water" carbon accounts, which is also the need to expand business. According to the calculation of CITIC carbon account, credit card users of CITIC Bank can reduce carbon emissions by more than 2 million tons annually through low-carbon behavior in online financial services. There is a huge market potential for carbon emission reduction in the future. According to Zheng Chenyang's analysis, the reason why banks develop their business in this way is mainly that after personal green low-carbon behavior is bound with their own carbon account, it can not only attract incremental customers, activate stock customers, sink the focus of service and precipitate scattered funds, but also enhance the viscosity between banks and customers and expand other businesses, so as to drive the development of new business forms and models with green low-carbon transformation. Wang Yao, President of the International Research Institute of green finance of the Central University of Finance and economics, believes that the provision of oriented green financial services by banks can guide more subjects to participate in carbon emission reduction to a certain extent. Financial institutions can accurately obtain the carbon emission performance of individuals or enterprises by using carbon accounts, and provide differentiated green financial services based on carbon emission reduction performance for individuals or enterprises through horizontal comparison and vertical analysis, so as to promote more subjects with financial measures and enhance the initiative of emission reduction. Carbon account system needs to be improved In order to promote the transformation of personal consumption to green consumption, the implementation plan for promoting green consumption issued by seven departments including the national development and Reform Commission at the beginning of this year proposed to guide banking and insurance institutions to standardize the development of green consumer financial services, promote the development of green business of consumer financial companies, provide financial services for enterprises and individuals producing, selling and purchasing green and low-carbon products, and improve the coverage and convenience of financial services. Green consumer financial services are all kinds of financial support provided by financial institutions for consumers' green consumption activities, and guide financial resources from the demand side to the aggregation of personal low-carbon behaviors, such as green consumer loans, green credit cards and other products. Zheng Chenyang said that the carbon account is a kind of green consumption financial services. The bank connects the green consumption behavior of individual customers to the carbon account, records the individual carbon footprint and carbon emission reduction, and converts them into financial service concessions. It is undeniable that the development of green finance has greatly improved the enthusiasm of enterprises for emission reduction, but in contrast, at present, individuals are relatively lack of awareness and motivation for emission reduction. At present, the overall construction of China's carbon market is still in the initial stage. Carbon accounts are mainly established by enterprises and residents' voluntary participation, and a systematic carbon account system has not been formed. Wang Yao said that the future development of carbon accounts still faces many difficulties. From the perspective of the carbon accounting system, the calculation method behind the carbon account is mainly to achieve the corresponding conversion through the carbon emission factor, and the determination of the carbon emission factor is an extremely complex process. Different emission situations need to be considered for different regions. In addition, the determination of the baseline in the calculation of emission reduction is also very important. In the face of complex public behavior, it is difficult to reasonably determine the baseline. In the future, with the continuous improvement of big data, it is expected to continuously improve the rationality of baseline determination. In fact, most personal carbon accounts are related to daily online payment (including water, electricity, gas, etc.). Zeng Gang, director of Shanghai finance and development laboratory, said that personal green consumption has diversified characteristics, and banks can not fully capture how much carbon individuals consume in their daily life. The main purpose of carbon account disclosure is different from that of the public. In addition, carbon accounts need to collect the corresponding information about the daily life and production behavior of individuals or enterprises. At present, there is no accurate and unified information source for personal information collection. With the increasing attention to information security from all walks of life, how to ensure that the relevant information of individuals and enterprises is not leaked is also related to the future development of carbon account. Explore the digital ledger of carbon emission reduction Realizing the goal of "double carbon" is not only a broad and profound social and economic change, but also a systematic project. For the banking industry, we need to constantly improve the financial services of green consumption, and do a good job in understanding and understanding the current situation of customers' green consumption. However, for individuals or enterprises at the micro level, there is still a lack of consistent accounting data standards. Exploring the digital ledger of carbon emission reduction may make up for this lack. According to Wang Yao, although many financial institutions are trying their best to improve the green supply side of carbon account, they still need to continue to pay attention to the innovation and exploration of financial products. For example, during the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, the carbon inclusive project set up by Beijing Green Exchange encourages the public to obtain corresponding carbon emission reductions through green and low-carbon travel, and the proceeds can be used for public welfare activities or shopping voucher exchange. This is a useful attempt of digital ledger. The most important reason why the carbon emission reduction digital ledger is valued by the industry is to improve the scientificity and accuracy of carbon data accounting in the process of developing carbon accounts, which is also the key to the development of low-carbon finance. Zheng Chenyang suggested that the bank collect the carbon footprint and carbon emission reduction information of customers through multiple channels through government support and technical means, and explore a standard and unified carbon accounting system; Enterprises should enhance the standardization and transparency of environmental information disclosure and establish a carbon emission data monitoring platform. Only when they work together can we improve the efficiency and accuracy of carbon data collection and processing. In addition, while collecting customer information and data, carbon accounts should not ignore the protection of customer privacy and consumption habits. Xue Fang, Deputy Secretary General of Beijing credit society, believes that the responsibility for the disclosure and abuse of customer privacy by some financial institutions should be seriously investigated. It is suggested that the regulatory authorities regularly monitor and review the information security of personal carbon accounts through on-site inspection and off-site monitoring. In terms of financial technology enabled carbon accounts, the banking industry should continue to invest in R & D funds, make full use of scientific and technological means such as big data, artificial intelligence and blockchain to expand potential customers, accurately analyze user needs, and customize the digital ledger of the whole life cycle. The development of carbon accounts is not a success overnight. Although the current construction of individual carbon accounts has made some innovative achievements, it is still in the stage of crossing the river by feeling the stone. Wang Huijun suggested to enhance the quantitative ability from the perspective of green financial system; Cooperate with relevant institutions to study and establish personal carbon accounts; Relying on enterprise carbon accounts, build enterprise ESG disclosure system and environmental information disclosure platform of financial institutions to provide support for promoting the development of green finance and the construction of individual carbon accounts. (Xinhua News Agency)