Last winter we noted the rise of the corporate green bond; this seems to be the winter of the green muni (municipal) bond. The past few weeks have seen three green munis totalling $328m, from across United States. The bonds have quite a bit in common; all from first-time green bond issuers; and all use proceeds for water projects.
The headlines:
The National Australia Bank (NAB), one of the four big banks in Australia, has closed Australia’s first climate bond certified under the Climate Bonds Standard. The A$300m bond has tenor of 7 years, coupon of 4% and is rated AA- (S&P) / Aa2 (Moody’s).
While October saw lots of exciting 'firsts' in the green bond market that created a media buzz, another topic that kept popping up was the discussion on ‘to standardise or not to standardise’. And after S&PDJI, Barclays/MSCI and Band of America launched their green bonds indices in November, the market started talking about green bonds going mainstream.
Below are selected articles from the last two months of media coverage. Note that we don’t include individual bonds reviews here.
It’s warm and tropically humid in Lima, Peru, where I’m visiting for a week of climate finance meetings and conferences revolving around the UN Climate Change negotiations. Expectations from the conference are low, but there's a lot about other ways of mobilizing private sector capital - give the scale of the investment challenge, that's the main game.
Australia’s first certified Climate Bond was launched today by one of Australia’s four big banks; National Australia Bank (NAB). The bond has been certified under the Climate Bonds Standard; a FairTrade-like labeling scheme for bonds that allows investors to easily prioritise ‘climate-smart’ investments. The bond raised A$300 million and will fund a portfolio of seventeen wind and solar energy farms. It is the first time an Australian issuer has brought a green bond to the local market. The bond's compliance with the Standard was confirmed by Climate Bonds’ approved verifier DNV-GL.
日本有数の証券会社である野村證券がClimate Bondsパートナーとなった。(for our Japanese readers)
野村証券でHead of EMEA Syndicateを務めるNick Dent氏は以下のようにコメントしている。
「我々はClimate Bonds Initiativeとともに、
Climate Bonds InitiativeのCEO、Sean Kidneyは以下のようにコメントしている。
Leading Japanese securities house, Nomura, has signed up as a Climate Bonds Partner.
Nick Dent, Head of EMEA Syndicate at Nomura, said:
"We're committed to growing the green bonds market in all the markets we're working in around the world. The Climate Bonds Initiative is equally committed. We see them as a valuable partner in educating the market about opportunities and issues to ensure that market growth is sustainable while being rapid."
Sean Kidney, CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative, said:
There will be a ‘green bonds insight’ event at the Responsible Investor Americas 2014 conference on 10 December from 12:15 to 16:00. Folks from sell & buy sides, local governments and NGOs will discuss:
The seminar is targeted at finance, public and education sectors. Organised by SUST4IN, a Madrid based network of sustainability experts, it’s 'invite only' but you can request an invitation via the event website – or simply let us know and we will see what we can do.
