Clifford Chance

Green bonds – is green the new black?

10 December 2015

Green bonds are all the fashion. Although multilateral investment institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the World Bank have been issuing green bonds since 2007, the first corporate green bonds were only issued in November 2013. Since then the market has seen exponential growth, from USD11 billion in 2013 to approximately USD40 billion in 2015, and the number and range of issuers entering the green bond market continues to expand. The emergence of the green bonds market has been recognised by the United Nations in its “Trends in Private Sector Climate Finance” on 9 October 2015 as representing “one of the most significant developments in the financing of low-carbon, climate-resilient investment opportunities”.

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