Issuance of green bonds — bonds whose proceeds are used for climate change solutions such as renewable energy or low-carbon transport — has slowed in 2015, according to the annual report of the London-based Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI). Originally forecast to reach $100 billion by the end of the year, the 2015 target is down to $70 billion due to lower than expected sales in the U.S. and China. Only $19 billion worth of green bonds had been issued worldwide at the end of June, but CBI predicted issuance to ramp up before the United Nation’s COP21 climate summit in December.
Green bond issuance tripled from $11 billion issued in 2013 to nearly $37 billion in 2014. The overall universe of outstanding green bonds now stands at $597.7 billion, up from $502.6 billion reported in the 2014 CBI report.
The U.S. accounts for only 12 percent of the world’s green bonds, and sales among corporations have been low, the report said. Most of the growth in U.S. green bonds has come in the form of municipal bonds, particularly for public universities and water utilities.
The report, “Bonds and Climate Change: The State of the Market in 2015,” is available at http://bit.ly/1NT9nJm.