I've spent all day in a Beijing roundtable with a few colleagues, talking with representatives of the State Council's Development Research Centre and various finance sector regulators. It's all about green finance and green bonds, organised by Simon Zadek at IISD and following the government's announcement that it would develop a corporate green bond market.
Climate Bonds Blog
Posted: Oct 15, 2013
China's finance sector regulators are pushing green
Posted: Oct 11, 2013
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has just issued the 3 year, USD500 million green bond they flagged over Summer; the deal closed yesterday at 14:30 London time. The bond 10% over-subscribed by the close of the half-day sales window. Coupon was 0.75% - yes, interest rates really are that low for AAA bonds!
AfDB's long-awaited AAA $500m inaugural green bond is sold out
Posted: Oct 10, 2013
An agenda for change, by Nick Silver, Managing Director, Climate Bonds Initiative
To avoid dangerous climate change will require the equivalent of another industrial revolution. This can only be achieved if finance into the green economy is increased by an order of magnitude. This may be possible as many low carbon technologies are competitive with fossil fuel if the cost of finance is low enough
Below are 10 tweaks based on the premise that if financing the green economy becomes attractive for actors within the financial system, in particular banks, investment banks and the shadow banking system, then these actors will aggressively promote investment into this sector.
10 tweaks to transform the green economy
Posted: Oct 7, 2013
Our NYC Bonds & Climate Change seminar 26 Sept was over-subscribed (just like most green and climate bonds nowadays!). Even with a great venue kindly provided by Bloomberg, RSVPs were way over the fire department limit - so we've holding a final Bonds and Climate Change 2013 report webinar on 21 October, 10am NYC, 3pm London, 4pm Frankfurt. Register here – log-in details to follow.
Final Bonds & Climate Change rpt webinar 10am, 21 Oct, for the New Yorkers we had to turn away / Can you send in a suggestion for improving the report next year?
Posted: Oct 7, 2013
Two new corporate climate-related bonds were issued this week.
The first, by Hong Kong-listed polysilicon producer Gold Poly, was a $50m convertible bond to finance the solar business of its project acquisition subsidiary China Solar Power Group. The bond is a 3 year bond with a 5% coupon.
$50m solar bonds from HK’s GoldPoly / UK’s Good Energy goes retail w £5m bond / PACE bonds update / Philippines FirstGen $250m – it could have been green
Posted: Sep 30, 2013
The Green Muni GO crosses the Atlantic, from Massachusetts to Sweden
On Friday Sweden's Gothenburg became the first Nordic city to enter the climate bonds space, closing a SEK500m ($77m), 6 year green bond to fund public transport, water management, energy and waste management projects. The bond is part of a potential SEK 2 billion green bond programme for such projects in Gothenburg. The bond carries Gothenburg’s AA+ and Aaa ratings from S&P and Moody’s.
Gothenburg breaks ground with $77m Swedish Green Muni / German AAA Rentenbank $50m climate bond / NYSERDA $24.3m resi EE climate bond / Green Bond Underwriters league: BoAML up to #2
Posted: Sep 26, 2013
Media release
The Climate Bonds Initiative today released further data from their recent report ‘Bonds & Climate Change: the state of the market in 2013’, showing which lead managers are driving growth in this market.
"The report shows that there's a large amount of issuance out there in the climate bonds space, but the real game is with the underwriters. We continue to see very strong demand, so a step-up is needed in origination" said Sean Kidney, CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative.
The climate bond underwriters league table: SEB, Citi, BAML, JP Morgan and HSBC lead the way
Posted: Sep 25, 2013
Yesterday the Canadian supplement to the Bonds and Climate Change report was launched by Sean Kidney with a speech at the Economic Club of Canada. The supplement is published in partnership with Sustainable Prosperity
Report Highlights:
- Canadian universe = C$5.7bn out of a global total of $346bn.
Canadian climate bonds universe = C$5.7bn, includes 3 renewable energy project bonds, 83% investment grade
Posted: Sep 19, 2013
Germany's PNE Wind AG has closed a €100m ($134m) 8% corporate bond with a final private placement with institutional investors of €33.7m.
PNE Wind will use the proceeds to expand its activities in offshore wind farm projects and to strengthen its portfolio of national and international onshore projects, especially the 189MW of wind farms they have under development in Germany.
German's PNE Wind €33.7m private placement completes €100m 8% corporate bond / Reminder: 'Bonds & CC' in Boston, Toronto, NYC next week
Posted: Sep 11, 2013
1. That EBRD AAA, 5 year "environmental sustainability" bond I blogged yesterday is out; proceeds go to climate related investments. See the EBRD announcement at http://goo.gl/8HwOBH. And check out their FAQ. Coupon is 1.625%. There were 14 buyers: 51% US, 31% European, 18% Asian. The sector allocation was: 64% to pension funds, 18% to central banks, 12% asset managers, 4% state-related investors, and less than 1% to bank treasuries and foundations.
EBRD $250m climate bond closes / Norway's REC planning $110m 5yr convertible / We're looking for climate science-savvy interns