Two new corporate climate-related bonds were issued this week.
The first, by Hong Kong-listed polysilicon producer Gold Poly, was a $50m convertible bond to finance the solar business of its project acquisition subsidiary China Solar Power Group. The bond is a 3 year bond with a 5% coupon.
Energy efficiency is a key investment area for the shift to a low-carbon economy. A Technical Working Group has been convened to develop eligibility criteria for the certification of energy efficiency related bonds under the Climate Bonds Standard.
The first meeting, via teleconference, was held on 20 July 2012.
This Working Group is focusing on the built environment; a separate Working Group will be convened to look at industrial and manufacturing energy efficiency.
The newsletter “Asset-Backed Alert” carried a story on Friday suggesting that the US is about to see a revival of PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) municipal bonds, securitizing clean-energy loans to households.
The PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program, strongly pushed by the US Department of Energy as the ideal financing model for residential solar panels and energy efficiency, is in trouble. It may have implications for the UK's PAYS scheme. The bonds are candidates to be called climate bonds.
