Banks say they can help build scale in voluntary carbon markets, by providing services from market-making to deal origination and stewardship. But some say it is too early for such intervention, arguing that profits still need to go into developing technologies.
As another emerging economy gears up to tap international markets with a green bond, Capital Monitor explores how much potential there is for governments to make their debt sustainable.
Banks globally are grappling with the challenge of decarbonising their lending portfolios. Dutch lender ING has devised sector pathways for the nine most emissions-heavy sectors in its loan book – here’s how it did so.
The chief investment officer of Spanish insurer Mapfre says EU regulators' attempts to supervise sustainable assets are too prescriptive, in that they lack essential interpretative context. This, he adds, is also partly why external ESG ratings fail to add major value.
Under pressure from the financial sector, the EU, G7 and other influential bodies are ramping up the push to achieve consistent measurement and reporting of sustainability impact amid concerns that separate initiatives are hindering this goal.
Singapore's Nanyang Technological University has sold a bond that is only the second of its kind globally. If it misses its targets, the step-up money will go into climate research or carbon offsets, not to investors. Capital Monitor gets the skinny from NTU finance chief Ong Eng Hock.
With investors pushing back on what they see as weak or immaterial claims by issuers of sustainability-linked debt, banks are now citing similar concerns – though they are still arranging deals seen as questionable.
The founder of ClientEarth, James Thornton, explains how the environmental law charity takes on large corporates and governments to tackle climate change.
As one of the more eager issuers of bonds linked to inflation, the UK faces the prospect of higher borrowing costs as high inflation begins to look less temporary than initially expected. Sustainability-linked bonds, relatively new instruments, could provide a long-term antidote.
Often cash-flush and shy of scrutiny, higher education institutions have not typically felt the need or inclination to raise green bonds, despite their suitability for such funding. That is changing, with private placements seen as increasingly popular.
AkademikerPension, ATP and PensionDanmark are increasingly heavily focused on green investing but take different approaches to renewable energy and high-carbon assets, and to climate transition in general.
Over 2,000 governments and businesses have signed up to some form of net-zero commitment, but, in the midst of a 'code red' for humanity, 2050 feels a very long way away. Richard Mattison, president of S&P Global Sustainable1, discusses how we can accelerate progress.
There are calls for regulation to support the new global commitment to cutting methane levels, seen as one of the quickest ways to tackle climate change. But how it will be funded is unclear, and the absence of China, India and Russia from the pledge does not bode well.
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