North China's Shanxi province recently issued its first loans for carbon emissions reduction projects.

The Shanxi branches of the Bank of China and the China Construction Bank issued four loans totaling 354 million yuan ($55.64 million) to clean energy projects, including 40 million yuan for hydropower projects, 800 million for wind power projects and 234 million yuan for solar power projects. 

This is expected to help reduce annual carbon emission by 54,900 metric tons.