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?

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.”

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.”