Our Climate Bonds Green Property (expert) Working Group last week published for comment their proposed eligibility criteria for property investments to be certified under the Climate Bonds Standard.
We're holding a series of webinars to run through the proposed criteria and seek feedback.
The webinars are being co-hosted with:
By Bridget Boulle and Sean Kidney
By Bridget Boulle and Rozalia Walencik
Last week Vornado Realty (BBB) became the second US real estate investment trust to issue a corporate green bond, following the Regency Centres bond late last month. The 5 year, $450 million bond was structured by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Pricing was in line with non-green bonds.
London: the Climate Bonds Green Property Working Group of international experts today published their proposed rules as to what buildings can be used to issue Certified Climate Bonds. Climate Bonds and Green Bonds are where the bond proceeds go to assets important to addressing climate change. The new rules will help investors better understand the low carbon integrity of green building investments. They are part of the Climate Bonds Standard, a FairTrade-like labelling scheme for bonds.
The bond will be used to support climate-friendly investments in emerging markets.
It's the first green bond issued by a multilateral institution in the offshore Chinese markets. The bond, which yields 2%, saw demand from investors in Asia and Europe. HSBC is the sole lead manager for the bond.
http://ifcext.ifc.org/ifcext/pressroom/IFCPressRoom.nsf/0/FC77F4FC845140...
http://www.ftadviser.com/2014/06/17/investments/fixed-income/renminbi-de...
China's CGN Wind has issued a one billion yuan, five year bond to finance wind energy developments in Inner Mongolia, Guangdong, Xinjiang and Gansu. Unusually, the interest rate uses a combination of "fixed rate + floating rate", with the floating rate tied to China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER). They called it a “carbon bond”.
In a couple of weeks I’ll be flying into the toxic pea-soup air of Beijing, for our next round of work on “Growing a Green Bonds Market in China”.
That's up from just under $11bn in the whole of 2013.
Big news for the green bonds market with the issuance of a first emerging market green bond. We’re not 100% sure on the size yet but we know they were aiming for R1.5bn ($139m) and it seems as though they were more than successful.
Financial Times, Climate change is a business problem, Mike Scott
Probably the most interesting green bonds article of this month is one by Mike Scott of Financial Times. Written in the perspective of the UN IPCC report calling for a drastic action needed in order to avoid catastrophic temperatures rise, it highlights the role of investors in divesting from fossil fuels. Climate bonds are brought into the picture as a sound investment alternative:
