Zurich: Over 60 people have showed up to the Credit Suisse Forum St. Peter this afternoon, for the pre-launch of the criteria for agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) under the Climate Bonds Standard. The criteria are now out for public consultation for 60 days – check out the full criteria (or have a peek at the executive summary).
First to take the stage was Liliana de Sá, Head of Private Sector Development at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). She gave a powerful keynote address to open up the event. Liliana spoke about the importance of the financial sector in addressing climate change, and the crucial role of standards for accelerating climate finance with robust environmental impacts, stating that “at SECO, we are convinced that [standards in the green bond market] are important”.
Next up, Justine Leigh-Bell, Standards Manager at the Climate Bonds Initiative, gave an update on the recent developments in the global green bond market and how standardisation can facilitate rapid scaling of the market.
Tanja Havemann, lead specialist on the AFOLU standards development and CEO of Climate Bonds partner Clarmondial, will take the stage next, wrapping up the speeches of today’s event by highlighting the exciting opportunities of the AFOLU sectors and how standards can facilitate scaling investment in this space.
The crowd present here in Zurich is only one indicator that there is strong interest in the AFOLU standard for green bonds. Several of the large banks and industry players have already come out in supporting the Climate Bonds criteria for agriculture and forestry:
Fabian Huwyler, vice president of sustainability affairs at Credit Suisse, says:
“The new Climate Bonds Standard for AFOLU will hopefully broaden the knowledge and capacity among potential AFOLU bond issuers, thereby promoting significant growth of an investment-grade climate bond portfolio.”
Hans Biemans, Head of Sustainability at Rabobank, says:
“With AFOLU green bonds it will be possible to fund sustainable, organic, local or healthy food production.
For issuers and investors the criteria must be simple and workable.
Think of investments and expenses in sustainable sales formulas including packaging, advertising and R&D expenses. The AFOLU Climate Bond Standard is important because it is the next important sector after utilities and real estate for climate change action."
Brian Kernohan, Director, Policy & Environmental Advocacy at Hancock Natural Resource Group, says:
“Sustainably managed forests are an increasingly critical part of our natural resource infrastructure which is necessary for addressing climate change.”
Marcos Mancini, Director of Sustainable Banking at Banorte, says
"Investors are keen to see more transparency and science-based comparability in the use of green bonds proceeds.
The development of a consistent, transparent and science-based methodology to evaluate, monitor and report on the use of proceeds for AFOLU green bonds will allow investors to allocate capital more efficiently rewarding those projects which provide the greatest impact."
