Humans will inevitably damage the environment and use up natural resources to a certain extent during the process of rapid economic growth, resulting in a decline in environmental quality and causing various kinds of pollution and damage. “Green finance” refers to the simultaneous pursuit of both growth and civilizational progress, infusing finance with concepts like energy conservation and pollution reduction. In contrast to general finance, it further emphasizes the long-term sustainability of human development. The financial industry plays an important role in environmental protection based on sustainable development and social responsibility. Promoters of this kind of finance within the banking industry are called green banks. Green finance protects the environment and society through green banks.
International experience shows that strong governmental support for green policies is the key to industrial and financial development. Green finance is not only a global trend of the future, but a way to enhance national strategic planning and productivity. Since green finance is still in its infancy in Taiwan, in order to help banks understand international experience, this study takes global green trends and green financing as its scope, examing the US and Europe, with relatively developed green finance industries, to further examine green banking developments. Both government-led policy banks and market-oriented private banks are receiving increasing attention for their impact on the environment and society.