Augmenting investment into agriculture offers enormous potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The land use sector receives only 2.5% of public mitigation finance yet is responsible for up to about 25% of global emissions. Only 0.9% of green bond investment is directed towards land use.
The Agriculture Criteria will assist in creating new capital flows into the sector with a new science-based framework that includes definitions and a screening mechanism for projects, assets, and activities against which both issuers and investors can assess green bonds. The qualifying projects and assets will be eligible for Certification under the Climate Bonds Standard.
The Climate Bonds Initiative sees a role for the $100 trillion bond market in addressing the huge funding needs of the global agriculture sector.