- Tomorrow I’m giving a lecture at Yale University on green bonds and climate bonds. If you’re on campus please do join. Klein Geology Lab room 123, on Whitney Ave near Peabody Museum.
- Monday I’m doing the same at the University of Edinburgh in the UK; that’s also open house. Lecture Theatre 4, Business School, University of Edinburgh, 29 Buccleuch Place.
Climate Bonds Blog
Posted: Feb 26, 2015
Talks coming up: Yale 4pm Thurs (today), Edinburgh Uni 4pm Monday / NYC legal issues roundtable this Friday / Solar Finance conf London 10 March / Sydney 16 March / Wellington NZ 19 March
Posted: Feb 21, 2015
Big news from the World Bank this week with two green bonds issued: the first is a long 30 year tenor for insurance giant Zurich and the second is the World Bank’s biggest ever green issuance of $600m. Repeat issuance seems to be the theme of the week with another green bond from Swedish property company Vasakronan.
Weekly update: World Bank issues its longest ever tenor: 30yr $34m + its biggest ever: $600m green bond in same week. More from Vasakronan: $14.2m + green bonds in EU Cap Mkt Union green paper
Posted: Feb 19, 2015
Monday. I’m in Delhi, in the bowels of the old, once-splendid Ashok Hotel, caught in a scrum of people trying to get our RE Invest conference registrations. “I guess it’s just crowded India” I think, then the guy behind the desk tells me they’ve had twice as many registrations as expected for this year’s conference, and people are still coming in. Ahhh.
Oooh India!! Yes Bank going for India’s first green bond / India’s amazing renewables buzz / Minister asks “how can we help?” – that’s the kind of Minister we want / Indian Green Bond Mkt Dvlpt Cttee
Posted: Feb 15, 2015
Jan 2015 media digest: stories in FT, India’s Economic Times, Reuters, Bloomberg and more!
2014 has been a breakthrough year for green bonds with issuance reaching US$36.6 billion. Media coverage matched the momentum. Here is what media have been saying so far in 2015:
Financial Times, Are green bonds a fair weather phenomenon?, by Ralph Atkins
Author of the article says that enthusiasm for green bonds is currently running high and talks of ‘an exponential growth’. He also wonders if green bonds will be resilient to potential storms hitting the global financial systems:
Jan 2015 media digest: stories in FT, India’s Economic Times, Reuters, Bloomberg and more!
Posted: Feb 15, 2015
Transparency and standards were at the top of the agenda this week with Ceres INCR (a Climate Bonds Standard Board member) issuing a statement outlining investor expectations of green bonds, supported by 26 large investors.
Weekly update: More investors call for standards; Fannie Mae discount green loans multi-fam bldgs; DNB green bond $131.6m +OPIC $4.85m +Iowa $321.5m +MEI $286m
Posted: Feb 7, 2015
February is already a hectic month for green bonds with two large issuances this week from repeat issuer Norway’s KBN and the US State of Indiana. As well as new green bonds there have been market developments with Oslo officially launching its green bond list and German ESG research house Oekom Research announced it's
Weekly update: Fantastisk Norge! Norway’s KBN issues Aaa $500m with its longest green tenor of 10yr +Oslo exchange goes live with green bond list requiring 2nd opinions / Indiana issues $100m for water projects
Posted: Feb 4, 2015
The Green City Bonds Coalition is a new project to promote the growth of global green muni market for, yes you guessed it, Green City Bonds.
The bulk of the world’s growth in the next 30 years will take place in cities. To avoid catastrophic climate change it’s essential that growth is green. That will involve new means of finance for the bulk of the world’s cities that don’t currently borrow, and supportive green finance for developed cities going green. We need to view the world not so much as a collection of countries as a network of cities and their surrounds.
Invite: 12 Feb PM roundtable in NYC on new Green City Bonds Coalition - for potential coalition members. Hosted by NYC Comptroller’s Office
Posted: Feb 4, 2015
As you know, we have shifted our bond reviews into a weekly format. To make sure you get the most of our news, we are also introducing a monthly round-up of Climate Bond stories.
The round-up is divided into
- New green bonds
- Market Developments
- Climate Bonds Standard news
- Climate Bonds Initiative news
New green bonds
Although January started on a slow note, by the end of the month we’ve seen 4 green bonds issued totaling $1.1 bn.
Climate Bonds monthly wrap up
Posted: Feb 3, 2015
Last Thursday the EU officially launched its proposals for a Capital Markets Union, with the aim to boost investment, growth and jobs through enabling diversification in the region’s sources of funding and reducing the reliance on bank lending.
The EU launches the work on a Capital Markets Union: green bonds are officially on the agenda! + lots of opportunities for aligning the other CMU reforms with the growth of a green bonds market: many backed by Aviva, with EUR300bn AUM
Posted: Feb 2, 2015
The Industry Working Group provides input to the development of structure, operation and framing of the Climate Bonds Standards & Certification Scheme. The objective of the Scheme is to provide a screening tool for investors that gives them confidence that funds are being used to deliver climate change solutions.
Climate Bonds Standard Industry Working Group (Aviva, Actiam, S&P, PwC, KPMG, IFC, Bureau Veritas, DNV-GL, TruCost, Shearman +) meets to review Standard; revised text due out soon