By Ulf Erlandsson, Senior Portfolio Manager Credit, Global Macro Trading, Fjärde AP-fonden/ Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund and Sean Kidney, CEO Climate Bonds Initiative.
Climate Bonds Blog
Posted: Jan 27, 2015
Ruminations on harnesssing the power of the bond market for green: mainstreaming vs niche funds, benefits of secondary market, role of govt
Posted: Jan 22, 2015
Before diving into the latest green bond offerings let’s not forget that green bonds were created because “no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change” (thanks to President Obama for the eloquent statement). Shifting capital to climate investments through green bonds is one way of addressing the challenge.
Weekly update: Supra’s continue to build market by providing liquidity + depth; EIB taps further EUR250m ($298m), 1.25%, AAA; World Bank issues INR348.5m ($5.7m) Uridashi green bonds, 4.2%, AAA, 5 yr
Posted: Jan 21, 2015
Today, I’ve been speaking at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi about the potential for green sukuk. A few years ago, if I had said “energy investment” and “the Middle East” in the same sentence, your thoughts would probably spin to oil and gas rather than solar and wind. But there are now some huge renewable energy developments and plans around. (Of course the rationale may be to save more oil for export, but that’s OK – we’re best to fight that fight at the demand side.)
Talking green sukuk at World Future Energy Summit @AbuDhabi: race is on for 1st issuer. Concept marries rapidly growing Islamic finance market with surging green bond market
Posted: Jan 20, 2015
EY (formerly known as Ernst & Young), one of the world’s largest audit firms and the third largest professional services firm in the world (by revenue), has been confirmed by the Climate Bond Standards Board as an approved Climate Bond Standards verifier. EY has 700 offices in over 150 countries.
EY confirmed as an approved Climate Bond Standards verifier
Posted: Jan 19, 2015
‘The green bonds market spreads its wings across the globe’, ‘Explosive growth!’, ‘Green bonds enter the game as star players!’ – that’s how some of the journalists described the exciting growth of the green bonds market in 2014. After the impressive year, everyone wonders if ‘the breakneck speed of expansion’ will continue.
There was a lot of media interest around the Australian first Climate Bond Certified bond from the National Australia Bank (NAB) and the first-ever public green bonds list.
Dec 2014 media digest: Institutional Investor, Reuters, Business News Network and more.
Posted: Jan 15, 2015
Morgan Stanley (MS) tops the Q4 underwriter league table, making $1.1bn of green bond deals during the quarter, with JP Morgan following closely in second place with $887m of deals. Both were carried over the line by big municipal green bonds, which pushed them ahead of staunch rivals Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) and Citi, who come in third ($763m) and fourth ($756m) respectively.
SEB tops annual Green Bond Underwriters League Table – by a whisker, but Q4 results have Morgan Stanley & JP Morgan on top. Plus we set banks underwriting targets for 2015. Cheeky, yes, but someone has to push them.
Posted: Jan 15, 2015
Tomorrow, Sean Kidney (Climate Bonds Initiative), Ben Powell (IFC), Björn Lindström (Vasakronan) and Christoffer Flensburg (SEB) will talk green bonds at a seminar in Stockholm organised by Swesif.
Issuers - IFC and Vasakronan – will give a first-hand report of their experiences with benefits of issuing a green bond compared to an ordinary bond; the processes to ensure the green credentials of their bonds, and the types of projects they financed with the proceeds.
Green bonds seminar in Stockholm tomorrow - speakers from Climate Bonds Initiative, IFC, Vasakronan, SEB and Swesif - and a workshop on green bonds for Swedish cities; kicking off 2015 as the year of the green muni bond
Posted: Jan 14, 2015
By Tess Olsen-Rong, Climate Bonds Market Analyst
Following a landmark green bond growth year in 2013, the labelled green bond market has once again experienced a year of incredible growth in 2014: by year-end there had been $36.6bn of green bonds issued by 73 different issuers – that’s more than a tripling of the market! The final figure was boosted by a late flurry of green municipal bonds.
Final 2014 green bond total is $36.6bn – that’s more than x3 last year’s total! Biggest year ever for green bonds; growth driven by corporate and municipal bonds
Posted: Jan 14, 2015
We're blogging so frequently nowadays we're worried about overwhelming your inboxes - so we're shifting to a weekly roundup format. Let us know how it's working. Of course if something amazing comes out we'll still do a special email.
..... Supranational green bonds
Huge retail demand for World Bank’s latest offering increases size from $15m to $91m in 3 days, 7 yr tenor AAA
Weekly update: big retail investor demand for World Bank AAA 7yr green bond / Chicago & Mass AAA green water munis / 2 new solar climate bonds from China: LDK & United PV
Posted: Jan 13, 2015
Green municipal bonds are set to take off in 2015 after a flurry of issuances in the latter half of 2014. With interest rates at an all time low, this is the time to finance the vast backlog of infrastructure upgrades and developments needed – and to green that infrastructure. This, according to the Financial Times, is especially so in the US.
A few more US Green Munis from 2014 : Utah, Jefferson County, Mass State College, Connecticut. Everything from bioenergy and heat recycling from a gas (!) turbine to, no kidding, a car park. Stretching boundaries of “green”?