The European Investment Bank (EIB) and World Bank, issuers of the first green bonds in 2007 and 2008 respectively, plan to work together to help more companies, municipalities and other sub-national issuers bring such bonds to market.
Other founding members of the Global Green Bond Partnership (GGBP) include: French asset manager Amundi, investor group Ceres, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy, the Climate Bonds Initiative, and ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability.
Their aim is to offer technical assistance, capacity building, de-risking, investment and underwriting support, as well as supporting the development of new funds and other financial vehicles to mobilise investor capital.
They also intend to work together to develop a 'Green Bonds Readiness Framework Toolkit', that will help potential corporate and sub-national issuers to assess their readiness to issue green bonds and identify key barriers to issuance.
"Scaling up green finance is crucial to tackle climate change and implement the Paris Agreement," said Jonathan Taylor, EIB vice president responsible for climate action. "Enabling green bonds to be issued for the first time by new public and private partners, including in emerging and developing economies, will allow even more eligible projects to benefit."
The Low Emissions Development Strategies Global Partnership, which brings together more than 300 government agencies, technical institutes, international agencies, and NGOs, will serve as the interim secretariat of the GGBP.
The partnership intends to coordinate its efforts with other initiatives, such as the Green Cornerstone Bond Fund Support Program of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) – a member of the World Bank Group and another GGBP founder. The IFC and Amundi together launched the world’s largest green bond fund in March.
It will also aim to provide technical assistance to signatories of the Green Bond Pledge, a declaration that "all bonds financing long-term infrastructure and capital projects need to address environmental impacts and climate risk".
The pledge was launched in March and its initial signatories were revealed at this week's Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. They include Australian pension fund Local Government Super, the Luxemburg Green Exchange, and the state treasurers of California, New Mexico and Rhode Island, along with Mexico City and San Francisco itself.