A bill passed by the Connecticut General Assembly yesterday reconstitutes the State’s existing Clean Energy Fund to form the nation’s first full-scale “Green Bank”. Congratulations to the Coalition for Green Capital and others who've been pushing for this in the US.
Story at: http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=445b6e705bfc895d1cec1626f&id=bce2705...
Goal to Assure Integrity of Green Claims for Investors, Governments
SACRAMENTO & LONDON – California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer today announced he has joined the Climate Bond Standards Board, which is supervising a program to provide investors and governments an easy way to assess the integrity of environmental claims for green bonds.
Following in the footsteps of other multi-national development banks like the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the IFC have decided to try Japanese retail investors. They've issued $135 million of green bonds, in four tranches, with the last three tranches out 17 May.
Will the appetite of Japanese retail investors for green bonds ever be sated?
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has launched its third environmental sustainability bond, bringing its total issuance since December 2010 to €29 million ($41.4 million). As with previous bonds, they're aimed at the Japanese retail market.
The bond proceeds are “specifically earmarked to support a portfolio of ‘green’ projects". Apparently a fourth green bond will be launched in the "near future".
See the full story at Environmental Finance.
Climate Bonds Initiative Chair Sean Kidney announced in London today that the Carbon Disclosure Project is joining the Climate Bond Standards Board, supervising a program to provide investors and governments with an easy way to assess the integrity of environmental claims for green bonds.
Mr Kidney said: “According to the International Energy Agency we need at least a trillion dollars a year to be flowing into low-carbon industries if we’re to avert catastrophic climate change. That money will come largely from bond markets. We need to ensure it’s invested properly.”
We have four new and distinguished Climate Bonds Advisory Panel members:
- Pedro Moura Costa, E2 environmental finance, co-founder EcoSecurities- Stuart Clenaghan, Eco System Services Limited and former Lehman/UBS fixed income manager- Jonathan Maxwell, founding partner, Sustainable Development Corporation- David Wood, Institute for Responsible Investment, Harvard University
According to Pensions & Investment magazine: "Money managers, institutional investors and others are combining efforts to drive the nascent green bonds market forward, and the fruits of their labor are becoming apparent."
It's an all-cast story, with quotes from CalSTRS, SSgA, UKSIF, SEB, IIGCC, AP3, Nikko, Calvert (if you know all the acronyms you qualify as a green bond groupie). The story also mentions the Climate Bonds Standards.
http://www.pionline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110418/PRINTSUB/304189979/1031/PIIssueAlert01
Eversheds law partner Michele Thomas, speaking at this week's Environmental Bonds Conference in London, said that the banks her firm has been working with on renewable energy transactions are preparing to securitise those loans and sell their exposure via green bond structures. Eversheds is one of the top ten law firms in the UK.
Environmental Finance reports that she said “All the work we’re doing in certain technologies – for example solar – is done with a view to securitisation,” she said. “The banks realise they can’t continue to fund on a traditional project finance basis – they need an exit.”
