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Laxman Pai, Opalesque Asia: With the market witnessing robust growth in volumes, products, and issuer types in 2021, sustainable capital markets are becoming mainstream in Asia-Pacific, said a study.
In the first half of 2021, the total issuance of cross-border bonds with an ESG label - i.e. green, social, sustainability, or sustainability-linked bonds - was over USD 50 billion. Compare that to the issuance volume in all of 2020, which was approximately USD 33 billion, said the report by Barclays.
According to Atul Jhavar, Asia-Pacific Head of Sustainable Capital Markets at Barclays, this trend reflects the growing importance of ESG investing in Asia-Pacific.
Governments across Asia-Pacific have rolled out green measures over the past 12 months, including environmental commitments and stimulus programs, which will drive further ESG debt issuance from the region.
These government commitments will ultimately direct many sectors across the economy towards achieving net-zero goals. Doing so will require multiple sources of financing and should be a major contributing factor to the growth of the ESG bond market in the region.
Addressing the energy mix in industry, buildings, and transportation is the major component of going green, but other activities such as agriculture and cement or aluminum manufacturing also have very material carbon footprints.
More recently, a new type of product has captured the market's interest: sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs...................... To view our full article Click here
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