Xinjiang-based Goldwind leads race to tap debt finance for environmental goals in world’s highest emitting country
Green bond will be used to support Chinese wind power business (Pic: Flickr/Land Rover Our Planet)
By Megan Darby
Chinese wind power company Goldwind has raised US$300 million in the country’s first green bond issue.
The financial product was nearly five times oversubscribed, with $1.4 billion worth of demand.
It will help fund the world’s highest emitting nation on its course to get 20% of energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030.
A taskforce led by the People’s Bank of China estimates the country needs US$320 billion a year 2016-2020 to fund environmental goals in its five-year plan, Reuters reported.
These included cleaning up smoggy cities and drinking water, as well as curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
Report: China poised for a boom in green bonds
Bonds are a stable, predictable type of investment attractive to institutions like pension funds and insurers. Globally, the bond market is worth some $100 trillion a year.
The “green” label is a recent development aimed at directing funds towards sustainable projects. In this case, DNV GL has verified Goldwind’s green credentials.
Following a growth spurt, the green bond market got off to a slow start in 2015, latest figures from the Climate Bonds Initiative show.
But Sean Kidney, head of the initiative, expressed a “cautious optimism” things would pick up, driven by interest from emerging markets including India and Brazil.
“There is no doubt that China is the most exciting story,” he told RTCC, with its central bank having drawn up guidelines for issuing green bonds.