Climate Bond Standard expanded to include more bond types, released next week

The Climate Bonds Initiative announced today an expansion to the scope and intent of the Climate Bond Standard slated for release at the end of July 2011.

The first release of the Standard will now cover not only corporate bonds, but also project development bonds and bonds issued by securitization vehicles.

The inaugural meeting of the Climate Bond Standards Board was held on Friday 22nd July. The Board consists of representatives from the California State Teachers' Retirement System; the Natural Resources Defense Council; the California State Treasurers' Office; the Investor Group on Climate Change; the Carbon Disclosure Project; and the Ceres Investor Network on Climate Risk.

The Board reviewed progress on the Standard Scheme following a period of consultation with working group experts and the general public.

Sean Kidney, Chair of the Climate Bonds Initiative said, "The  consultation process helped us to bring a much broader product to the market than originally intended. This will allow potential issuers much more flexibility in how they structure climate-related bonds and kick-start the scaling up of the market."

The text of the Standard has now been finalized and in the coming week will be put to the Board for approval. The extension has contributed to a short delay in securing the Standard release by the end of July.

The Climate Bond Standards Scheme will allow investors, governments and other stakeholders to prioritise ‘low carbon’ investments with confidence that the funds are being used to deliver a low carbon economy.