Environmental Finance's Bond Awards 2023

This award recognises the impact that these projects are having and their role in building a greener future for Japan.

The KfW green bond was the debut 2022 benchmark issue under the agency's new green bond framework - which was expanded by a third project category - and became KfW's largest order book for a green transaction.

NatWest was praised for its "excellent" work in ESG bonds as the bank picked up three awards this year.

This winning bond was a pioneering joint initiative by the development banks of the German federal states of Brandenburg, Hamburg and Rhineland-Palatinate.

This €1 billion ($1.1 billion) seven-year social inclusion bond, issued by Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) in April 2022, was the first social bond to target the response to the Ukraine refugee crisis in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Île-de-France region in north-central France is the country's most prosperous. But it is not without its social and environmental challenges, particularly as it is densely populated - with a fifth of the country's population - and it surrounds the capital, Paris.

Nomura oversaw a tenfold increase in its transition bond issuance - albeit from a relatively small base - even as volatile market conditions caused a drop in virtually all other areas of the bond market.

Berlin Hyp's inaugural social mortgage pfandbrief made the commercial real estate lender the first European financial institution to issue bonds in three different ESG bond formats: green, social and sustainability-linked.

These two awards acknowledge the work of European multinational real estate company Vonovia.

Funds from The City of Kyoto's inaugural green bond will be used for renovation projects aimed at energy conservation projects in city-owned facilities as well as river improvement projects.

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) issued a ground-breaking $150 million sustainability 'rhino bond' to support rhino conservation in South Africa.

S&P Global Ratings and Cicero Shades of Green sealed the External assessment provider of the year award after judges praised their broad coverage and "strong reputation" in the second party opinion (SPO) market

The Department of Airports of the City of Los Angeles raised $546 million with the issue of green bonds in 2022 to advance the climate goals of the Los Angeles World Airports and the City of Los Angeles.

Zarafshan's 500-megawatt wind farm is Uzbekistan's first wind power plant. Once operational in 2024, it will be the largest wind plant in central Asia and help provide almost 500,000 homes with sustainable and reliable energy.

A zero-deforestation soy finance initiative managed by Sustainable Investment Management (SIM) and backed by a 'green bond' invested in by three UK supermarket chains has scooped the Green bond initiative of the year award.

TD Securities acted as joint lead manager for the Government of Canada's Ukraine Sovereignty Bond to support the Government of Ukraine through Russia's illegal invasion.

The debut sustainability bond issuance from Romanian lender Raiffeisen Bank SA (RBRO) secured the Sustainability bond of the year award for financial institutions, after being praised for its ground-breaking role in the domestic capital market and commitment to social projects.

Snam scooped the Transition bond of the year award for its first EU Taxonomy-aligned transition bond, which it hopes will lend "credibility" to an instrument it considers an "important pillar" of the sustainable finance market.

The €500 million ($545.8 million) bond backed by residential mortgages, which channelled proceeds into green projects, has won the covered sustainability bond of the year.

In January 2022, French bank Groupe BPCE became the first European issuer to raise a green bond devoted to refinancing sustainable agriculture-linked assets with a €750 million ($850 million) green bond.

AG2R La Mondiale secured the Asset owner investor of the year award for the rapid expansion of its sustainable bond investment programme.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government's JPY30 billion ($226 million) five-year bond stood out to the Bond Awards judges for being the first municipal bond issuer in Japan to be involved in the sustainable bond market.

Following the Government of Canada's inaugural green bond issuance in March 2022, Canada returned to the sustainable debt market with a Ukraine Sovereignty Bond later in the year.

Sunwealth says its Solar Impact bond fund structure affords investors access to diversified portfolios of community-based clean energy projects, "addressing a capital gap" in this segment of the market.

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange made advancing 'gender finance' a core element of its work in sustainable finance in the last year.

Transmission system operator TenneT last year issued a €3.85 billion ($4.2 billion) green multi-tranche bond, making it the largest ESG corporate bond issued in the Eurozone market in 2022.

The Government of Canada's inaugural, 7.5-year C$5 billion ($3.6 billion) green bond, in March 2022, is the largest single green bond offering denominated in Canadian dollars to date.

Impact fixed income fund manager Affirmative Investment Management (AIM) continues to innovate in its annual impact reports.

KBN's impact reporting team prides itself on providing information that is as easy for its investors to use as possible.

The Bloomberg MSCI Green Bond Index aims to offer investors a objective measure of the global market for fixed income securities issued to fund projects with direct environmental benefits.

As well as being the winner of several previous Environmental Finance Bond awards, in 2022 Bloomberg ranked Clifford Chance as the number one legal adviser to managers on sustainable bonds in Europe, as ranked by volume.

In 2022, Bank of America (BofA) executed sustainable municipal transactions in 14 US states for 22 issuers across eight different municipal sectors, including airports, mass transportation, housing, pollution control/sanitation, and water and sewers.

As part of its Impact Bonds initiative, federally-backed home mortgage company Freddie Mac issued $92.8 million in social bonds, supporting affordable housing for over 1,500 senior citizens across four housing properties in Arizona.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) run by women - such as clothing stores and hair salons, mini grocery stores and restaurants - are the backbone of many local economies in Brazil.

Dream Impact Trust issued its inaugural C$40 million ($29 million) sustainability bond in June 2022. It was the first bond issued under the Dream Impact Trust's Impact Financing Framework.

In 2022, Gildan became the first Canadian clothing manufacturer to link a loan to the achievement of its ESG targets.

In 2022, the South African mining firm Harmony Gold nominated Nedbank to be global coordinator, bookrunner and sustainability coordinator for the pricing, structuring, arrangement, refinancing and upsising of its solar facilities.

In 2022, the covered bond subsidiary of the French public development bank SFIL issued its green first bond under SFIL Group's newly established green, social, and sustainability bond framework.

A historic issuance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts won two categories in this year's Bond Awards.

The European financial institution (FI) focus of the GAM Sustainable Climate Bond strategy helped the €16 million ($17 million) fund seal the Green bond fund of the year award in only its first full year of existence.

This award recognises the AfDB's pioneering work on supranational bonds in the ESG market, and in particular the issue last year of its ZAR200 million one-year green bond.

Amundi's Fixed Income Platform has €48 billion ($52 billion) invested in green, social and sustainable bonds.

The debt-for-nature conversion underpinning the $73 million Barbados marine conservation sustainability-linked bond is expected to save the island $50 million over the next 15 years in a deal structured by Credit Suisse.

In 2022, Citi acted as a lead manager for several sovereign syndicated green, social and sustainability bonds

BNP Paribas was victorious in five Environmental Finance Bond Awards categories in 2023

In March 2022, the Republic of Chile issued a $2 billion, 20-year sustainability-linked bond (SLB). This transaction marked not only the first SLB for Chile, but also the first SLB issued by a sovereign.

In March 2022, Saint Paul Port Authority of Minnesota in the US sold $15.9 million in municipal sustainability bonds for its Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) Project.

Despite all the challenges facing markets in 2022, HSBC remained focused on its ESG ambitions.

In 2022, GlobalConnect, a major digital infrastructure and data communication provider in Northern Europe, raised additional financing as a consortium of Nordic and international banks and financial institutions committed additional senior debt facilities of a total of €1 billion ($1.01 billion).

In April 2022, Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), a Boston-based non-profit affordable housing developer, issued a $75 million sustainability bond.

Environmental Finance Bond Awards judges praised J.P. Morgan's global leadership across supranational and sub-sovereign (SSA) sustainability bonds

The MXN$20 billion ($1.05 billion) Mexican sovereign bond was the first sustainable sovereign bond issued in pesos and aligned with ESG criteria, according to the Mexican Ministry of Finance and Public Credit.

In October 2022, Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) successfully launched a new €500 million ($542 million) five-year sustainability bond.

In October 2022, The City of New York issued $400 million of taxable General Obligation bonds, constituting its first-ever social bond transaction.

"Issuing blue bonds is the most suitable way to finance projects that will solve the maritime issues that companies are facing", Mizuho Securities told Environmental Finance

As the leader of the team that created the first sovereign sustainability-linked bond (SSLB) with a two-way coupon, Uruguay's head of the sovereign debt management office, Herman Kamil, paved way for other sovereigns to incorporate the structure.

A $79 million 'blue' bond from Banco Internacional in Ecuador became the first private transaction of its kind in Latin America in November 2022.

A dual-tranche sustainability bond issued by the World Bank in September 2022 for $4.5 billion was the first of its kind in the sovereign, supranational or agency (SSA) market.