Heather O’Brian Markets - 15/June/2020

A pale green bond for the energy transition

The concept of transition bonds began as an idea to sell bonds that were difficult to market as green bonds, mainly natural gas bonds, but has evolved into an opportunity to accelerate decarbonisation efforts

PALE GREEN
Transition bonds can be issued by oil and gas companies, as well as cement, steel, mining and other “brown” carbon-intensive industries looking to fund projects to cut their carbon footprints with an eye to becoming green

GREEN BOND BOOM 
A record $255 billion in green bonds and loans were issued in 2019.Transition bonds, which can complement green bonds and demonstrate the step-by-step process of the clean energy transformation, are an idea whose time may have come

KEY QUOTE
Transition bonds need to be combined with rigorous targets, measurements and scrutiny to avoid the risk of greenwashing and companies seeking to buy time we don’t have ...

 

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