The first Japanese bank has signed up to a United Nations statement on sustainable development.
By signing the UN Environment Programme’s ‘Statement by financial institutions on the environment and sustainable development’, the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) has committed itself to a ‘precautionary approach’ to environmental management.
DBJ provides loans for large-scale construction projects.
The statement, set up in 1992, also requires the state-owned bank to recognize that ‘sustainable development depends upon a positive interaction between economic growth and environmental protection’.
Most of the 171 financial institutions that have signed to date are European. They include Abbey National, Bank Austria, Bank of Ireland and HSBC.
Unep hopes that DBJ’s lead will increase the number of Asian signatories and Takashi Matsukawa, deputy governor of DBJ, said the bank would help Unep to get other financial institutions in Asia involved.