Have you done your HLEG homework? Submissions to the EU High Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance close soon. Watch our short 1min25sec Climate Bonds video explainer to find out more.
Sneak Peek: Our annual State of the Market report is less than a month away! As a loyal Market Blog reader we can reveal the global launch with HSBC in New York on the 18th September and a follow up in Sydney on the 2nd October.
Stay tuned for more launch details on our Twitter account @climatebonds.
What’s On: To illustrate the diversity of green finance events worldwide we’ll be highlighting a few that catch our eye or pique our interest in a new ‘What’s On’ in News Bites section at the end of the Blog.
New Issuers
We’re sticking to our new format to help readers keep up with the volume of green bonds emerging. New issuers in the first Table and repeat issuers in the 2nd with a link back to our original blog post.
So here we go….
|
Issuer |
Size |
CBI Certified |
Verifier/Reviewer |
Issuer Type |
CBI Analysis |
|
Fremont Union High School District |
USD 31m |
No |
None |
US Muni |
|
|
Natixis, Ivanhoe Cambridge, and Callahan Capital |
USD 72m |
No |
Oekom |
ABS |
|
|
Grupo Rotoplas |
MXN 2bn |
No |
Sustainalytics |
Corporate |
|
|
ADIF Alta Velocidad |
EUR 600m |
No |
CICERO |
Government agencies and state-backed entities |
|
|
Korea Development Bank |
USD 300m |
No |
Sustainalytics |
Development Bank |
|
|
Rural Electrification Corp |
USD 450m |
Yes |
KPMG |
Corporate |
|
|
L&T Infrastructure Finance Company |
INR 6.7bn |
No |
CICERO |
Commercial Bank |
|
|
Lietuvos Energija |
EUR 300m |
No |
CICERO |
Corporate |
|
|
Yiwu State Owned Assets |
CNY 800m |
No | Industrial Bank | Corporate | Link to analysis |
|
Brookfield Renewable Partners |
USD 475m |
No |
S&P |
Corporate |
|
|
Bank of Changsha |
CNY 2bn & CNY 3bn |
No |
EY |
Commercial Bank |
|
|
Helvetia Environnement Groupe |
CHF 75m |
No |
Vigeo EIRIS |
Corporate |
|
|
DBS Group |
SGD 685m |
No |
Sustainalytics |
Corporate |
|
|
City of Cape Town |
ZAR 1bn |
Yes |
KPMG |
Muni |
|
|
SPIC Roghne Financial Leasing |
CNY 1bn |
No |
CCXI |
Corporate |
|
|
Rio Energy (Itarema Geração)
|
BRL 112m |
Yes |
Vigeo EIRIS |
Corporate |
|
|
Omega Geração (Potami Energia) |
BRL 42m |
Yes |
Vigeo EIRIS |
Corporate |
|
|
Azure Power Energy |
USD 500m |
Yes |
Emergent Ventures |
Corporate |
|
|
Anglian Water |
GBP 250m |
No |
DNV GL |
Corporate |
|
|
Inter-American Investment Corporation |
USD 135.8m |
No |
DNV GL |
Development Bank |
|
|
GCL New Energy |
CNY 375m |
No |
None |
Corporate |
|
|
Tadau Energy (Edra Power) |
MYR 250m |
No |
CICERO |
Other debt instrument |
|
|
Bancóldex |
COP 200bn |
No |
Sustainalytics |
Government agencies and state-backed entities |
|
|
Guiyang Public Transport |
CNY 2.65bn |
No |
ZHONGCAI LVRONG |
ABS |
|
|
City of Greensboro |
USD 26m |
No |
None |
US Muni |
Repeat Issuers
|
Issuer |
Size |
Certified |
Verifier |
Links to our previous blog |
|
EIB |
EUR 1bn |
No |
None |
|
|
BAIC Motors |
CNY 2.3bn |
No |
None |
|
|
SNCF Réseau |
EUR 750m |
Yes |
Oekom |
|
|
Asian Development Bank |
USD1.25bn |
No |
CICERO |
|
|
IFC |
NZD 125m |
No |
CICERO |
|
|
KfW |
AUD 200m |
No |
CICERO |
|
|
Renovate America/Hero Funding |
USD 204.8m |
No |
Sustainalytics |
|
|
Beijing Enterprises Water Group |
CNY 572m |
No |
Syntao Green Finance |
|
|
Greenko |
USD 1bn |
No |
Sustainalytics |
|
|
Fannie Mae |
USD 873m |
No |
None |
Climate Bonds Certified Bonds
City of Cape Town – ZAR1bn (USD77.2m)
In July Cape Town joined the growing ranks of cities who have issued a green bond with Climate Bonds Certified offering that attracted 4 times oversubscription.
Previous green bonds issued by South African entities included the Industrial Development Corporation and Nedbank both way back in 2012 and the City of Johannesburg, in 2014, Joburg being the first C40 city to issue a green bond.
It’s been a long time between drinks for green bonds in South Africa we’re pleased to see Cape Town taking up the cities mantle with this certified bond.
Proceeds will go towards the refinancing of:
- Water (93% of total): water capture, storage and distribution infrastructure, alternative water treatment plants (with quantified expected emissions impact), and flood defences
- Transport (7% of total): electric buses
Cape Town residents are currently in the middle of a climate crisis as low rainfall for the past three years has caused the city’s worst drought in a century. This green bond integrates into the city’s water resilience plans to tackle the surge in water stress in the region.
Proceeds that are yet to be allocated to eligible projects are to be held in temporary "Green" investment instruments, a point worth noting.
Underwriter for the bond Rand Merchant Bank gives some more background on Cape Town and green bonds in South Africa here.
The verifier’s report from KPMG is available here.
Underwriter: Rand Merchant Bank.
Rio Energy (Itarema Geração) – BRL 112m (USD 34m)
Itarema Geração, a subsidiary Brazilian based Rio Energy issued a green debenture of BRL112m in June 2017. It’s certified by Climate Bonds under the Wind Criteria.
Nine wind farms will be refinanced via the debt raised: Itarema I to Itarema IX all located in North-eastern state of Ceará.
Wind is pretty easy – it’s infrastructure that is clearly in line with a 2-degree pathway.
Additionally, it is estimated that the project will generate about 913.91 GWh of renewable energy per year.
The verifier’s report will be shortly uploaded here.
Underwriter: Itaú Unibanco.
Omega Geração (Potami Energia) – BRL42m (USD13.6m)
A São Paulo based subsidiary of Omega Geração, Potami Energia issued a Climate Bonds certified green debenture on the domestic market in May 2017.
Proceeds will help refinance 3 wind parks (Testa Branca I - 22 MW), Testa Branca III - 22 MW and Porto do Delta - 30.8 MW), located in the Northeast state of Piauí.
The verifier’s report from Vigeo EIRIS will be shortly uploaded here.
Underwriter: Banco ABC Brasil.
Watch this space for more analysis in Climate Bonds’ 2nd Brazilian Edition of the State of the Market 2017 report, planned for release in late October 2017.
India’s Azure Power Energy recently closed its inaugural green bond, certified under the Climate Bonds Solar Criteria to refinance solar projects in India aggregating 621MW.
Azure Power is a pure play developer and operator of utility-scale solar assets in India.
The verifier’s report from Emergent Ventures India can be accessed here.
Underwriters: Barclays, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Société Générale.
There has been a small flurry of issuance from Indian issuers in Q3 after a slow start to 2017 – so far India is the largest source of issuance for this quarter!
Exciting times – keep an eye out for where we end up at the end of September…
Rural Electrification Corp, India – USD450m
The Rural Electrification Corp of India (REC) issued a certified Climate Bond for USD 450m this past month. REC is one of India’s leading power infrastructure companies.
Proceeds will initially finance just solar and wind projects.
However, beady-eyed readers may notice that a much broader range of asset types are classified as eligible in the Green Bond Framework (like hydro and biomass) for which there are no Climate Bonds criteria available yet
So, how does it work?
Well, the bond was certified against the criteria that are currently available (solar and wind criteria) but the green bond framework is broad enough to allow proceeds (of this bond or future bonds) to be allocated towards other areas in the future (like biomass or hydro) subject to criteria being available.
The ‘subject to’ is the important part – at the moment, those criteria are not available so no proceeds will be allocated to anything other than wind and solar projects.
There was a lot of interest generated by this bond resulting in 3.9x oversubscription.
REC have committed to annual reporting which will be independently verified by a third party.
A verifiers report was provided by KPMG.
Underwriters: ANZ, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Mizuho, MUFG.
Corporate Green Bonds
Lietuvos Energija, Lithuania – EUR300m (USD342.5m)
A new entrant to the market is Lithuanian state-owned energy company, Lietuvos Energija, who issued a green bond in mid-July 2017. They were initially seeking to raise EUR200m from their green bond but the amount was revised up to EUR300m following strong interest from potential investors, music to our ears!
The largest investors were German, Finnish, French and Lithuanian.
Proceeds have been allocated for the following types of projects:
- Renewable energy: wind power, biogas, solar power, geothermal power, hydropower (defined as: a. new investments, refurbishment and maintenance of small scale hydro power plants up to 10 MW and b. refurbishment and maintenance of large scale hydro without any increase in the size of the reservoir)
- Pollution prevention and control: energy from forest biomass waste or municipal waste streams
- Energy efficiency: improving distribution networks to minimize network losses and allow for renewables to be connected, smart grids and ESCO projects
- Clean transportation solutions: electric vehicle infrastructure
The only potentially controversial parts of the framework is the hydro section but they gave specified that for large scale hydro, this will only be refurbishment, not new hydro.
The other somewhat tricky point is the energy efficiency criteria which includes improving distribution networks. While improving the efficiency of electricity grids is essential, we note that this alone will not be sufficient to bring an electricity system in line the steep emissions trajectory required for a 2-degree world.
So, we’re glad to see that the framework also outlines renewable energy projects as eligible for bond allocation – we hope to see both types of projects happening together.
Well done Lietuvos for being the first Lithuanian green bond issuer! We hope to see more issuers from neighboring countries following in Lietuvos’s footsteps.
The second opinion by CICERO is available here. The framework was attributed a Dark Green grade.
Underwriters: BNP Paribas, SEB.
DBS Group Holdings – SGD 685m (USD 500m)
Singapore based financial services group DBS have issued a SGD 685m green bond.
Proceeds will be used to finance or refinance projects which meet the following criteria:
- Green buildings: Purchase, construction or renovation of commercial and residential buildings that meet recognised standards of LEED Gold and above or equivalent certifications
- Sustainable transportation: public transportation (such as rail, metros, trams, cable cars, electric/hybrid buses, and bicycle schemes and supporting infrastructure) as well as electric or hybrid vehicles with 125gCO2/km under the Vehicular Emissions Scheme
- Renewable energy: wind, solar, run-of-river hydro projects <25MW, or other renewables recognized as such by the International Renewable Energy Agency
- Energy efficiency: Products or technologies that reduce industrial energy consumption, such as improved chillers, improved lighting technology and enhanced battery capacity
- Waste management: recycling infrastructure, including waste minimisation, filtering, management, recycling and reuse as well as waste-to-energy power plants
- Climate change adaptation: products or technologies that enable adaptation and decrease vulnerability to climate change, including information support systems such as climate observation and early warning systems
Their green bond framework and second opinion by Sustainalytics is available here.
All the criteria are detailed and from the information available, are aligned with our Taxonomy.
For hybrid cars, however, we note that the Climate Bonds transport criteria take a more stringent approach - for cars to be considered green under the Climate Bonds Standard, they must meet, or be below, a maximum emissions level of 85-90 grams of CO2 per passenger kilometre travelled (g CO2 p/km). This is based on data from the IEA mobility model and Global fuel economy initiative.
Underwriters: Crédit Agricole CIB, DBS, HSBC, ING, Natixis, Société Générale, Wells Fargo.
Anglian Water – GBP250m (USD326m)
UK utility Anglian Water issued the first green bond from a UK-based issuer in 2017. This is only the 6th green bond from the UK, and the first from a utility. The transaction was 3.2x oversubscribed.
Issued on August, 10th, 2017 this inaugural green bond will support activities falling under the utility’s “Love Every Drop” sustainability strategy.
This includes sustainable water management and recycling projects with a reduced climate footprint.
Interestingly, the project selection criteria indicate a minimum carbon reduction of 50% from Anglian Water’s agreed baseline (unfortunately the baseline is not specified), large infrastructure projects, sustainable abstraction schemes, river restoration projects, work on the natural environment programme and significant energy saving schemes.
We note that energy saving rather than water saving is a core focus of this bond. Anglian has been advising investors how significant this this is for them given that how much energy they consume – in particular moving water around is energy intensive.
DNV GL provided the second opinion.
The green bond reporting will include some impact metrics, which will be available within one year of the issuance.
On another note, Anglian Water is a best practice example at how utilities build resilience as climate patterns change. They have integrated climate change risks and scenarios into their daily activities and have robust public adaptation, drought and water resources management plans.
Primarily because of its strong adaptation planning, we identified Anglian Water as a potential green bond issuer in our 2016 State of the Market report where it was the largest issuer of unlabeled ‘climate-aligned’ bonds in the water sector.
Underwriters: BNP Paribas, HSBC, ING, JP Morgan.
Yiwu State Owned Assets – CNY800m (USD118m)
Yiwu State-owned Assets mainly offers state-owned capital operation and equity management services. The Company also provides investment and financing services. All proceeds of this green bond will be used for water treatment projects in Yiwu City.
Second opinion provider: China credit rating.
Underwriter: Industrial Bank.
Helvetia Environnement Groupe – CHF75m (USD77.3m)
This is the first green bond coming from a Swiss issuer (prior to this date, a green Schuldschein was issued by Swiss energy utility Repower in January 2017).
According to the company’s press release, the proceeds will be used to finance the construction of a new waste management facility.
The issuer’s framework received a second opinion from Vigeo EIRIS but this document is not publicly available at this stage. We would encourage more transparency of either the green bond framework or second opinion as this would allow investors to see how the bond is compliant with the green bond principles.
Underwriters: BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse.
Brookfield Renewable Partners (Private Placement) – USD475m
July saw one of the largest green bond private placements to date with Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. issuing a USD 475m project bond secured against the 380MW White Pine hydroelectric portfolio in Maine.
74% of proceeds of the offering will be used in part to refinance the White Pine Hydro facility. The remaining proceeds will be used to offset funding of capital expenditure and development activities at a number of renewable projects. The final allocation to the other renewable energy projects has not yet been finalised but estimates include three onshore wind projects, one biomass project and two small hydro projects.
The White Pine portfolio consists of 21 hydroelectric facilities primarily located in Maine, on the Androscoggin, Dead, Kennebec, Presumpscot, Rapid and Saco rivers. The facilities are a range of sizes and a mix or run-of-river and reservoir facilities.
These are all existing hydro facilities, many of which were built in the 1950’s, so issues around GHG emissions from the flooding of new reservoirs are mitigated.
The bond received the strongest Green Evaluation score from S&P of E1 which reflects excellent mitigation.
GCL New Energy (Private placement) – CNY375m (USD55.7m)
The initial private placement green bond from China’s solar PV power provider GCL came to the market in early August with CNY375m (USD55.7m).
Proceeds will be used to finance and refinance the installation and manufacturing of solar panels. No second opinion.
Commercial Banks
L&T Infrastructure Finance Company – INR6.67bn (USD103m)
This is a continuation of the International Finance Corp (IFC) work in India to expand renewable energy infrastructure and climate change projects. This bond is very straightforward as solar power is a clean energy technology which is eligible under the CBI taxonomy.
The IFC were the sole investors in the bond which will be used to provide loans for solar power projects.
Projects eligible under their use of proceeds are as follow:
- Renewable energy: Solar power
A second opinion is available here from CICERO.
Bank of Changsha – CNY2bn (USD 291m) & CNY3bn (USD444.6m)
Bank of Changsha came to the market with CNY2bn and CNY3bn green bonds issued in May and July respectively. Proceeds are going to a variety of projects, including clean energy, low carbon transport, adaptation and the efficiency improvement of municipal lighting system.
The bank has provided a list of project examples to be financed, including metro construction, LED and smart lighting, as well as hydro.
Metro projects and LED lighting all fit easily under our taxonomy. Hydro can be more complicated but the combined installation capacity of all these hydro projects is 12.75MW. This is in alignment with our taxonomy which uses 15MW as the threshold of differentiating the controversial large hydro projects from the small ones.
EY provided second opinion.
Underwriters: CITIC Securities, China Merchants Bank.
Development Banks
Korea Development Bank (KDB) – USD300m
Proceeds from the bonds are to be allocated to the following projects:
- Development, construction, or expansion of wind and solar power generation.
- Development, construction, or expansion of biomass power plants.
In terms of eligible biomass projects, KDB is opting for a waste-to-energy approach. The plants will use wood pellets made of low grade wood fiber, tops and limbs that cannot be processed into lumber, commercial thinning and mill residues such as chips, sawdust and other wood industry by-products.
Well to KDB for addressing environmental concerns commonly associated with biomass by responsibly choosing waste-to-energy.
Sustainalytics provided the second opinion.
Underwriters: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC.
Inter-American Investment Corporation (Private placement) – USD135.8m
The issuer is the private sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. It raised nearly USD136m in early August to finance the operation of the 35x2MW wind turbines located in Palomas, Uruguay. The project developer is Invenergy.
The project should generate enough energy to supply the city of Salto (100,000 inhabitants), and will participate in the annual reduction of 140,000t of carbon dioxide.
Being climate-friendly is as easy as ABC!
Second opinion: DNV GL.
Government Agencies and State Backed Entities
ADIF Alta Velocidad – EUR600m (USD681m)
This past month saw the issuance of a green bond by Spanish company ADIF Alta Velocidad. ADIF are tasked with maintaining railway infrastructure across Spain. Their issuance joins SNCF Réseau this month and RATP last month in a recent burst of green bonds by companies who operate railway infrastructure (is an issuance like this a long way off in the UK?).
Proceeds from the bond have to be allocated to “clean transportation/energy efficiency” which includes new rail lines, upgrading current lines and maintenance of the rail system.
Increased use of rail transport is very compatible with a 2-degree future, so it is a win!
CICERO’s second opinion is available here.
Underwriters: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya, Santander, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB.
Bancóldex – COP200bn (USD66.5m)
This third Colombian green bond was issued in early August by the state-owned Banco de Comercio Exterior de Colombia (Bancóldex).
The green bond framework received a second opinion from Sustainalytics.
Proceeds will go to the following eligible categories:
- Pollution control and resource efficiency (including waste management and wastewater treatment)
- Sustainable transport (acquisition of hybrid and electric vehicles)
- Energy efficiency: including investments that improve average energy efficiency by 20-30%) and investments financing the replacement of old power systems using high efficiency motors powered by natural gas
- Renewable energy
- Sustainable buildings
Bancóldex has identified a portfolio of 117 projects that could receive allocations from its green bond issuance, 42% in renewable energy, 42% in pollution control, 6% in sustainable buildings, 9% in energy efficiency and just 1% in sustainable transport projects.
While broadly positive, this bond has a few issues.
High efficiency natural gas motors to replace old power systems are included under energy efficiency. The company has stated that this replacement represents the best efforts in the local context but, while that may be the case, they do not qualify as green by our or Sustainalytics definition.
We would normally exclude this bond from our data but the company has specified that a maximum of 3% of proceeds will be allocated to such projects. We allow a leeway of 5% for green bonds so this fits within that band but we will monitor reporting to see if anything changes.
Secondly, the criteria used to define sustainable buildings green is Colombia’s green building code. This is difficult because it makes international comparisons difficult. However, we do accept the rationale given by the company and Sustainalytics that international building certification schemes have very low penetration rates in Colombia (only 105 LEED certified buildings) so this is probably the best way at present to support the improvement of national building stock.
Lastly, it would be helpful to have a bit more information about the waste and wastewater projects which account for a large percentage of the bond but this is a small niggle.
Broadly, it’s positive – Dale Colombia!
Underwriters: Banco Davivienda, Banco de Comercio Exterior, Correval.
Municipalities & Cities
Fremont Union High School District – USD31m
Fremont Union High School District issued a green bond in July.
Proceeds from the bond have been allocated to four projects that the district is undertaking that meet some or all of the following sustainable building practices and components:
- Solar panels on buildings
- Efficient building envelopes
- Efficient building systems: Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment that exceed energy efficiency requirements.
- Indoor environmental quality: selecting materials to minimize the amount of volatile organic compounds in the buildings.
- Daylight and views: projects designed to provide ample and balanced daylight.
The solar panels are easy – they easily fit into any green taxonomy.
The rest of the ‘sustainable building practices and components’ are a bit vague.
The overall principles sound fine but they have not used any international standards (like LEED) which makes comparison or any kind of measurement of ‘green’ difficult.
They have used Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS) California criteria which is a “is a flexible yardstick that defines a high performance school in California”. It’s a positive that they have used some criteria but without any more information it’s difficult to assess this compared to other schemes.
Why are we always focused on buildings being benchmarked and comparable? While some may take the view that any efficiency improvement is better than none, the judgment of the international experts that comprise our Technical Working Groups is that deep and ambitious renovation/construction of existing building stock is needed.
This is because investment in a building happens only very rarely (when it is built and then maybe every 10-15 years thereafter).
This means that refits and refurbishments need to make the building ‘fit’ for the future – and therefore as environmentally friendly and energy efficient as possible.
No second opinion.
Underwriter: Morgan Stanley.
The City of Greensboro in North Carolina issued its maiden green bond on the 17th of August. The bond will finance the costs associated to the improvements of the City’s water and sanitary sewer system, including repairs, equipment and expanding the water treatment capacity.
No second opinion.
Underwriter: Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Asset Backed Securities (ABS)
Natixis, Ivanhoe Cambridge, and Callahan Capital – USD72m green tranch
In early June we saw Natixis, Ivanhoe Cambridge, and Callahan Capital issue the very first Green tranch of a CMBS Deal. The debt raised was issued to refinance part of a loan provided by Natixis to Ivanhoe Cambridge for the acquisition of 85 Broad Street in New York.
The property obtained a LEED Platinum rating in January 2017, being the highest level obtainable under the system.
LEED Platinum is also very much in line with the Climate Bonds Low Carbon Buildings Criteria.
Oekom provided the second party opinion.
Underwriters: Crédit Suisse, Natixis.
Guiyang Public Transport – CNY2.6bn (USD389m)
Guiyang Public Transport issued its CNY2.65bn (USD389m) inaugural green ABS, backed by future cash flows from the mass transit operating revenue. Proceeds will be primarily used for upgrading green transport infrastructure and improving energy efficiency. Since specific categories are not disclosed at this stage, we will track the allocation of proceeds and update with details once we have more information.
Guiyang City is the capital of China’s Southwest province Guizhou which has been nominated as one of the five green finance pilot zones by the State Council of China.
Zhongcai Lvrong provided a second opinion, but the report is not publicly available at this point.
Underwriter: Ping An Securities.
Other Debt Instruments
Tadau Energy (Edra Power) – MYR250m (USD 58.5m): First ever green Sukuk!
Right at the end of July, Malaysia’s Tadau Energy issued the first-ever green Sukuk.
The earmarked project is a 50MW solar project in the coastal city of Kudat, in the Sabah state.
So… what is a sukuk?
Sukuk are “tradable Islamic finance instruments”, consistent with the principles of Shari’ah. Sukuk represent an ownership in underlying assets or earnings from those assets. While sukuk are often described as Islamic bonds, there are also types of sukuk that have equity-type risk-sharing structures. Their closest equivalent is probably the “YieldCo”, with its fixed interest like return.
This deal ends a somewhat drawn out race for the first sukuk (yes, it was 2015 when we said ‘the race is on’), Climate Bonds first started discussing the concept in a joint webinar back in 2013 and no doubt, others were before then…but here we are, the first Green Sukuk. Hopefully there is more to come!
This deal is also exciting because it’s also the FIRST green bond from Malaysia!
Two firsts - well done!
Second party opinion from CICERO.
Underwriter: AFFIN Hwang Investment Bank.
Terna, green loan – USD81m
The loan was issued by the Italian Terna in mid-July, with 70% financed by the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC) and 30% by BBVA. It will allow the company to build a transmission line between the cities of Melo and Tacuarembó in Uruguay, connecting renewable energy generating projects.
Second party opinion from Vigeo EIRIS.
Excluded bonds – pending additional information
SPIC Roghne Financial Leasing – CNY1bn (USD145.7m)
This is a private placement coming from Chinese issuer SPIC Roghne Financial Leasing which provides finance to energy and other projects.
As is common with private placements, there is no detailed information on the allocation of bond proceeds. However, according to this news release, all fund raised will be used for financial leasing for wind, solar, and hydro projects. We will keep looking for further disclosure on the size of the related hydro projects, and this bond might be excluded if it fails to meet our hydro criteria.
Second opinion provider: CCXI
Underwriter: Industrial Bank of China.
CLP Climate Action Bond
CLP Holdings Limited (CLP) issued a climate action bond. Under CLP's framework there are two types of eligible bonds, Energy Transition Bonds and New Energy Bonds. New Energy bonds have been earmarked for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and low emission transport infrastructure – this is broadly fine.
But…“energy transition” bonds are excluded from our database.
They are for developing gas fired power plants to help transition from coal fired plants. Gas is complicated… it may be a transition but there are some problems with this.
Firstly, the case for gas as a transition fuel is not at all clear. When people talk about emission savings from gas they are generally talking about "deemed" emission savings – i.e. estimated savings. It turns out that there can be a big discrepancy between estimates and reality.
There has been a global spike in methane generation in the past five years, and it looks like it may be coming from fugitive emissions. Further, methane is 30 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 –meaning that a single gas blow-out can cause huge problems as it did in LA in 2015 when one blow-out was equal to one-quarter of the annual methane pollution from all other sources in the Los Angeles Basin.
Secondly, from a 2-degree pathway perspective – large scale building of new gas power is not the infrastructure needed in 2030 or 2050 to ensure the rapid decarbonization needed.
Yes it’s true that most estimates show that gas will be a part of the energy mix for many decades to come, particularly in emerging economies but if there is a rapid uptake of gas power generation across the world as a ‘transition energy source’, the level and pace of decarbonization needed to hold temperature rise at 2 deg becomes exceedingly difficult.
DNV GL provided the second party opinion.
News Bites & Gossip
What’s On?
Anything to do with boosting NDC financing and investable propositions always draws our eye. This 15 September half day Climate Finance Accelerator ‘Financing the Future’ wrap up looks intriguing. It’s backed by the UK Govt & is aimed at the investment community. Registration is here.
Green Financing – Aktuelle Entwicklungen bei Green Bonds. An afternoon event in Vienna on the 20 September involves the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and our friends at White & Case. It has a stellar list of speakers. Zur Anmeldung klicken Sie bitte hier.
Green Bonds Americas 2017 is the 3rd time around for Environmental Finance and will be held on 23 September in New York. We want to see hundreds of billions in green bonds from corporate America accelerating issuance and more cities following the lead of MTA in New York and BART in California.
So this Big Apple event gets a big tick. If there ever was a nation in the world that needed encouragement on green finance and climate action right now…
Reading and reports
Summation of Ma Jun's address at the Environmental Risk Analysis Seminar, in Beijing on July 17. (Ma Jun is the founder and Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs - IPE, Chairman of the Green Finance Committee, Chief Economist of Research Bureau of the People’s Bank of China and Co-Chair of G20 Green Finance Study Group). A must-read.
Our China Mid-Year Report 中国绿色债券市场半年报: Market overviews, every green bond issued in China Jan-July, first movers and more. Available in English & Chinese.
London roundtable discussion on ESG, SRI & green bonds makes an interesting read. Organised by ANZ Bank & Kanga News there’s a good mix of Australian and global perspectives.
NDCi Global talks to CBI’s Justine Leigh Bell. More issuers, transparency on use of proceeds, how to fund NDCs and the $1 trillion by 2020 target.
Moving Pictures
The EU Expert Group on Sustainable Finance is important!
Climate Bonds quick 1min25sec video clip explains why. Watch it on our YouTube Channel here.
Other market News
Brown Advisory Launches Sustainable Bond Fund.
City and County of Honolulu’s green bond closing on Sept 14th.
Mexico’s Grupo Rotoplas have issued a sustainability bond for MXN2bn (USD112m).
State Bank of India (SBI)’s Green Bond Framework is now available here.
Kiwi firm Contact Energy has launched an NZD1.8bn (USD1.3bn) Green Loan Borrowing programme Certified by the Climate Bonds Initiative, the biggest single certification we’ve ever done.
SSE prepares green bond.
Hypo Vorarlberg are on their inaugural green bond roadshow.
Spanish Group Greenalia is expected to come to the green bond market in September.
American company Big Bears Recycling are considering issuing a green bond.
Coming up in the next Market Blog
Dairy producer Meggle issued green Schuldschein.
NIB launched 5-year SEK 2bn environmental bond.
Santa Monica approves green bond.
Lagos State’s first tranche N27bn waste management bond closed.
And lastly, another HLEG? Responsible Investor reports an informal group of “Canadians working in finance in London and other European financial centres” are breakfasting on the 14th of Sept to canvas a Canadian Expert Group similar to the EU project on sustainable finance. A further round of discussion is set when pension funds and asset managers get together in Berlin later this month for PRI IN Person.
Want to know more? Contact Hamish Stewart, Head of Investor Engagement at ET Index.
That’s all for this time around. We're saving our graphs for our 2017 State of the Market report, launch coming up soon. Wait for it!
Till next time,
Climate Bonds
Disclosure: Several organisations named in this communication are Climate Bonds Partners. A full list of Partners can be found here.
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