The Climate Bonds Initiative announced today an expansion to the scope and intent of the Climate Bond Standard slated for release at the end of July 2011.
The first release of the Standard will now cover not only corporate bonds, but also project development bonds and bonds issued by securitization vehicles.
CalSTRS Joins Climate Bonds Standards Board to Boost Green Debt Capital Market
Goal to assure integrity of green claims for investors, governments.
The Australian Government announced on the weekend it will set up a "Clean Energy Finance Corporation" (CEFC) as a statutory body. The initiative is part of a large package of climate change finance measures, including a long-awaited carbon tax.
Germany's SolarWorld is issuing a €150 million corporate bond.
Also in Germany, Windreich (wind energy) is issuing a €75 million corporate bond.
So you have some context for the news we post about climate and green bonds, here are some amazing facts about the bond market.
1. Global bonds outstanding in 2010 = $95 trillion. That's a big market. Global equity market capitalization in 2010 = $55 trillion
2. The bond market equals 130% of global GDP, up from only 80% 10 years ago. Equities used to be the bigger of the two, but the great financial crash has seen those positions reversed.
(All facts are courtesy of CityUK's new report on the bond market. They're a great source of data!)
Goal to Assure Integrity of Green Claims for Investors, Governments
Australia’s Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), representing institutional investors, with total funds under management of approximately $600 billion, today announced that it is joining the International Climate Bond Standards Board. The Standards Board is supervising a program to provide investors and governments an easy way to assess the integrity of environmental claims for green bonds.
1. Climate Bonds Standard text delayed until July.
We're running late. We had planned to release the first version of the new Climate Bonds Standard text in May, after addressing issues raised in our public consultation phase. But we're still addressing comments on areas such as balance sheet reporting requirements for corporate Climate Bonds, on referencing - or not - other governance or environmental standards, and on the nature of sanctions for non-compliance. The release is now scheduled for the early to mid July. Thank you for your patience.
2. We welcome 3 new members of the Climate Bonds Advisory Panel from Turkey, NZ and Canada:
1. BofA Merrill Lynch announced this week that it would offer World Bank (WB) green bonds to its wealth management clients. The model is reminiscent of Nikko AM's World Bank Green Bond offerings for Japanese and EU retail buyers. By far the largest slice of retail interest in green bonds has been Japan, where we think total green-themed "Uridashi" outstanding will hit the $1 billion mark within the year. The ten year WB bonds sold through BofA ML will pay a 3.5 percent coupon for the first year that switches to a floating three-month USD-Libor based coupon after one year.
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...
