BEIJING: China will drive growth of so-called green bond market, says HSBC. The value of so-called “green bonds” to finance environmentally sustainable energy and transport projects is expected to tripple to around $100bn (£67bn) this year spurred on by demand from Chinese investors.
Stephen Williams, head of capital financing in Asia at HSBC expects green bonds to increasingly be used by Beijing to help finance the construction of more renewable energy in the world’s second-largest economy and a transition towards more environmentally sustainable growth.
Mr Williams said: “Globally, green bonds are going mainstream. Early issuers were development institutions such as the World Bank, but last year a third of all green bonds were issued by corporates. Also, issuers have moved into new currencies including offshore renminbi and Australian and Canadian dollars.”
Campaigners in the UK led by energy secretary Ed Davey are pressing for large institutional investors and public institutions to divest their assets in fossil fuels to help address climate change and avoid the so called “carbon bubble”
Major international climate change talks are scheduled to take place in Paris this year where world leaders are expected to limiting increases in global surface temperature to no more than 2C, compared with pre-industrial levels, to avoid “dangerous” enviromental change.
Last November, China and the US – which combined account for 40pc of global carbon dioxide emissions – agreed to firm targets to limit polution. Beijing agreed to concrete limits on emissions for the first time and the US said that it would make further reductions to the levels of CO2 that the world’s largest economy pumps into the atmosphere.
In January, Royal Dutch Shell bowed to shareholder pressure to be more public about how it will address global warming. The company’s board agreed to support a motion proposed by the Church of England and 150 other shareholders calling on the company to explain more fully its policy on climate change.
