Growing the Green Bond Market to Finance a Cleaner, Resilient World

Business News/Analysis, Funding/Financing/Investing, International

March 19, 2014

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(The World Bank) Story Highlights: Green bonds give investors an innovative way of supporting clean energy, mass transit, and other low-carbon projects that can help countries adapt to and mitigate climate change. The World Bank has mobilized over $5.3 billion through 61 green bond transactions in 17 currencies*, and the IFC has issued $3.4 billion in green bonds, including two $1 billion issuances in 2013. New Green Bond Principles and a call to double the market by September are helping expand the young market and attracting a new set of investors.
The growing risks brought on by climate change are raising development costs for the world’s fast-growing cities and developing countries. Government funds alone will never be enough to build resilience to extreme weather and deal with the threats to energy, water, and food supplies – the private sector and institutional investors must be involved.
That’s where an innovative funding stream is starting to make a difference. Green bonds are delivering finance for clean energy, mass transit, and other low-carbon projects that can help countries adapt to and mitigate climate change, while giving investors high-quality-credit, fixed-income investment opportunities that have a positive impact.
“Green bonds create a new flow of finance for low-carbon development. That’s crucial. But they do more – they have the potential to move the finance fulcrum in a cleaner direction, away from traditional fossil fuel investments and into the projects that will build our low-carbon future,” said World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change Rachel Kyte. READ MORE

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