Green bond issuance has surpassed the $100 billion mark for 2019, according to the Climate Bonds Initiative. The organization expects that the impact of the EU technical expert group (TEG) process will help open the path towards the first trillion in annual green finance investment.
The $100 billion benchmark was first met in November 2017 during COP23 and then in mid-September in 2018. Several bonds that settled late last week and three deals which settled on 24th of June (Alliander at $342 million, Vattenfall at $569 million and Korea Electric Power Corp at $1 billion) have taken Climate Bonds market data figures on cumulative labelled green issuance for 2019 to $106.7 billion, above the $100 billion mark. Forecasts for final annual issuance in 2019 range from $180 billion through to $240-$250 billion.
The largest corporate bonds issued to date in 2019 have been from Engie at $1.9 billion, LG Chem at $1.6 billion, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and MidAmerican Energy, both at $1.5 billion. The largest Sovereign green bond in 2019 to date has been a Climate Bonds Certified issuance from the Netherlands at $6.7 billion.
