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White House Recognition for Climate Bonds Standards at World Water Day Summit
Foreshadows Certified Water Bond Issuance by San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
LONDON: 22/03/2016: 14:00 GMT: The Climate Bonds Initiative’s efforts to promote sustainable water investment were recognized by the White House today at its Water Summit.
Held on World Water Day, the White House Water Summit aims to fortify commitments across the nation towards a sustainable and secure water future.
In partnership with Ceres, the Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, CDP, and the World Resources Institute (WRI), the Climate Bonds Initiative is launching a new Water Climate Bonds Standard with a focus on vulnerability assessment and climate mitigation and adaptation planning to the fixed income space.
The Water Climate Bonds Standard has been created to provide investors with verifiable, science-based criteria for evaluating bonds earmarked for financing sustainable water infrastructure projects. The Standard will also help corporate, municipal and other bond issuers expand their green bond offerings into water-related projects.
This standard can be used to evaluate projects as diverse as energy or industrial water efficiency, reuse, catchment or watershed restoration and or large-scale water supply infrastructure development.
Climate Bonds CEO Sean Kidney:
“The critical lens of climate must be used to assess future water investment, for new infrastructure and upgrade, projects, potable water supply, energy, agriculture, and industrial processes. To address water sustainability, we need to shift investable capital towards adaptive and resilient projects in a short space of time. This positive acknowledgement by the White House of the Water Climate Bonds Standard’s role in evaluating blue/green investments will boost investor confidence.”
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission expects to be the first issuer to align a forthcoming bond sale with the Standard in order to finance sustainable storm water management and wastewater projects.
Harlan Kelly, SFPUC General Manager:
“As utilities across the nation invest in our aging water, power and sewer systems much of that work is to directly address the protection of our environment and the growing impacts of climate change. San Francisco is proud to be prioritizing sustainable bond financing options to support our infrastructure work, and the Water Climate Bonds’ Standard will help investors grow this market.”
Justine Leigh-Bell, Global Standards Manager, Climate Bonds:
“San Francisco PUC is showing leadership by example to the US municipal bond market with the forthcoming issuance of a certified water bond. They are to be congratulated.”
“San Francisco PUC is paving the way for other public authorities internationally to issue certified climate bonds for water infrastructure upgrades. It’s a vote of confidence that the Water Climate Bonds Standard is relevant and applicable for assessing water bonds. “
ENDS
Notes for Journalists:
About Climate Bonds Initiative: The Climate Bonds Initiative is an investor-focused not-for-profit, promoting large-scale investment in the low-carbon economy. www.climatebonds.net
About the Water Standards Consortium: Partner organisations are Ceres, Alliance for Global Water Adaptation, World Resources Institute (WRI) and CDP.
About Standards: The Climate Bonds Standard is a screening tool for investors and governments, which allows them to easily prioritize climate and green bonds with confidence that the funds are being used to deliver climate change solutions. Governance structures around standards development can be found here.
About the Water Climate Bonds Standard: The proposed Standard will certify water investments that have:
- Carried out climate vulnerability assessments considering past, present and future climate risks and environmental losses and
- Created resulting adaptation and/or mitigation plans.
About The White House Water Summit: More information is available here. ‘Commitments to Action on Building a Sustainable Water Future’ released to coincide with the summit available here.
About Technical Working Groups (TWG): Climate Bonds convenes a range of TWGs comprising experts from academia, international agencies, industry and NGOs to develop eligibility criteria for a Standard in each low-carbon investment sector.
A list of the Water Technical Working Group members can be found here.
Disclaimer: The information contained in this media release does not constitute investment advice and the Climate Bonds Initiative is not an investment adviser. Links to external websites are for information purposes only. The Climate Bonds Initiative accepts no responsibility for content on external websites.
The Climate Bonds Initiative is not advising on the merits or otherwise of any investment. A decision to invest in anything is solely yours. The Climate Bonds Initiative accepts no liability of any kind for investments that any individual or organisation makes, nor for investments made by third parties on behalf of an individual or organisation.
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