Climate Bonds Blog

DUBAI, 5 March 2012 – The Climate Bonds Initiative, the Clean Energy Business Council of the Middle East and North Africa and The Gulf Bond & Sukuk Association today announced they have launched a Green Sukuk Working Group. The group aims to channel market expertise to develop best practices and promote the issuance of sukuks for the financing of climate change investments and projects, such as renewable energy projects.

Green sukuks are Shari’ah compliant investment securities that finance projects meeting eligibility criteria developed by the International Climate Bond Standards scheme. The first meeting of the Green Sukuk Working Group was held last week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

By guest blogger “Corporate Bonder”The global bond market is huge. Data from the Bank for International Settlements shows that the total size of the global debt securities market (domestic and international securities) was $99.5 trillion as at June 2011, of which $89.9 trillion were notes and bonds. Governments accounted for $43.7 trillion of outstanding debt securities, financial organizations $43.8 trillion, corporations $11.0 trillion and international organizations $1.0 trillion.

> The European Investment Bank is a hero bank - it's the world's largest clean energy lender - but they have a dark side that uses cheap public money to build new coal-fired power stations. It's policy lunacy because it means the EU's bank is undercutting EU emissions reduction targets (let alone the world's).

1. Did you hear that China raised its 2015 solar energy target from 10 to 15 GWp just before Christmas? They have around 3 GWp now, and they'd already raised their target to 10GWp after the Japanese nuclear disaster. In contrast, Germany has 25 GWp of installed solar. China is likely to direct banks to offer cheap finance, although there have been indications of a debt market beginning.