Green bond deals hit record $100bln

BONN, Germany: Global green bond deals will top the $100 billion mark on Thursday and hit a new record, putting them on track to reach $130 billion by the end of the year, data from the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) showed.

Issuance is calculated to be $101.4 billion, after a $1.5 billion green bond from the China Development Bank settles on Thursday, according to the CBI, a London-based non-profit which certifies the green credentials of bonds. Green bonds are a growing category of fixed-income securities, which raise capital for projects with environmental benefits.

Although green bonds make up a small fraction of the overall bond market, they are attracting more attention because meeting emissions-cut targets will need trillions of dollars of capital from public and private sectors.

In 2016, global green bond issuance was nearly $82 billion. Last month, Moody´s Investor Service said issuance is on track to exceed $120 billion this year. The increase this year has been fuelled by a number of significant deals, especially from China, the CBI report said, which was released to Reuters on the sidelines of a U.N. climate conference in Germany.