A few days ago I was at China’s annual EcoForum conference, far away in the South Western city of Guyiang, where tower blocks are sprouting like mushrooms across the rolling hills. I was a speaker at a Green Finance Roundtable, alongside Ma Jun, the newish chief economist at the People’s Bank of China - what a star he is! - as well as Mark Halle of IISD, Huang Jianhui, VP of Finance Research at the China Development Bank, and others.
Climate Bonds Blog
The Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) is an industry-driven organization committed to assessing the sustainability performance of real estate portfolios (public, private and direct) around the globe.
The published BRT criteria proposed by the Low Carbon Transport Technical Working Group will end its 30 day period of public consultation Monday 14th of July – so hurry and send us your feedback in the comments box below or at standards@climatebonds.net!
Lots of coverage this month. We've divided stories into six topics: Green Property Criteria, Calls for Standards and Clarity, Market Analysis and Market Growth.
Green Property Criteria
Coverage following the opening of the Public Consultation for Green Property Eligibility Criteria under the Climate Bonds Standard.
A long-tenor - 32 year - CAD 231.5 million (USD 218 million) green bond was successfully issued this week to fund the building of two new hospitals in Campbell River and the Comox Valley of British Columbia.
The A- bond was over-subscribed, according to the BC Government’s media release.
Underwriters were National Bank Financial and Bank of Nova Scotia. The bond yield is 165 basis points more than a government benchmark security. Investors included insurance companies and fund managers.
The first Italian green bond was issued last week by Hera, an Italian energy, water and environmental services utility operating in the Emilia-Romagna, Triveneto and Marche regions.
It’s a EUR 500 million, 10 year corporate bond with proceeds ring-fenced for green projects. Hera’s rating is BBB with stable outlook by S&P and Baa 1 negative outlook by Moody’s. Coupon is 2.375% - yes, that is low..
See our running total graph at www.climatebonds.net. It was just under $11 billion last year.
You'll have to wait a little longer for our year-to-date roundup to get the details!
This year's "Bonds and Climate Change: State of the Market 2014" report will feature an update on the "underwriter-labeled" green bonds market as well the usual full analysis of bonds related to climate change. They amounted to $346 billion outstanding in last year's report; we can tell you that this year's figure will be North of that.
London: Thursday 17 July 2014, 4-6pm, kindly hosted by Shearman & Sterling.
Frankfurt: Monday 21 July 2014, lunchtime, kindly hosted by Allianz.
RSVP: info@climatebonds.net
RSVP to justine@climatebonds.net(link sends e-mail)
We expect that Green Property Bonds are going to end up being 50% of the exploding green bonds market. Green Property Bonds can be issued against the whole value of a green building, or the value of a buildings portfolio. They can also be issued against a portfolio where the owners are planning to make it green. Lots of options.
But critical to making this concept work will be investor confidence in what is a green building.
Time: 10:00 am- 12:00 pm, Monday 7 July 2014
Venue: TKP Otemachi Conference Center, Hall 16 1-8-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
A presentation by Climate Bonds CEO Sean Kidney will be followed by a discussion.
Simultaneous interpretation will be available (English-Japanese)
If you would like to come along, send an email to Mr. Nabeshima at green-inv@jp.kpmg.com by Wednesday this week, and include following information: name, affiliation, address (home or business), phone number, and email address.
Participants are kindly requested to bring a printed confirmation email from the secretariat and ID with a photo.