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Green Bonds

A complete guide to the climate, environmental, social and sustainability bond markets

Agenda Program Online
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Online
Available exclusively as online training
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Price of online training
N/A
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Lecturer
N/A
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Language
English
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Evaluation
N/A
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The course focuses on a series of case studies designed to give you a complete picture of every aspect of green bonds, climate bonds, environmental bonds, social and sustainability bonds. Through the use of clearly worked examples, exercises and case studies you will learn:

ICMA’s Green Bond Principles
ICMA’s Social Bond Principles
ICMA’s Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles
EU’s taxonomy
Who issues green bonds and who buys them?
The relationship between green bonds, climate bonds and other bonds.
How climate bonds work?
Types of green bonds and types of interest calculation.
Types of environmental project eligible for green bonds.
The current state of the climate-aligned bond universe.
Bond market pricing and bond market valuation techniques.
Buy-side considerations: integrating green bonds in investment strategy and practice.
The perspectives and roles of the key players in the green bond market: regulators, investors, underwriters, issuers, external reviewers, rating agencies, stock exchanges, data and index providers.
What drives the market?
The current market trends for green and climate bonds.
Potential future developments in the green bond market.
This is a case study driven two-day course designed to enable participants to assimilate all the knowledge they need in order to participate effectively in discussions about the issuance of green bonds and the opportunities which exist for investors. Group exercises and case studies will allow you to share your experience with the other participants while learning from them as well as from the trainer.

Who should attend?
  • Firms who are looking to issue or invest in bonds linked to environmentally beneficial projects.
  • Market professionals involved in underwriting, research or professional services for green bonds.
  • Capital markets lawyers; external reviewers; rating agencies; stock exchanges; data and index providers; official sector representatives promoting, supervising or developing policies on sustainable finance.
  • Other professionals with an interest in sustainable finance and the merits of the green bond markets.

Program of the seminar: Green Bonds

The seminar timetable follows Central European Time (CET).

09.30 - 09.35 Welcome

09.35 - 12.30

Best practice guidelines and ICMA’s Green Bond Principles

  • Green bond definition
  • GBP: Green Bond Principles
    • use of proceeds
    • process for project evaluation and selection
    • management of proceeds
    • reporting
    • external review
  • Types of green bonds
  • Who supports the GBP?
  • The governance framework for the GBP

Case study: China - transition to a low carbon economy

  • Largest country of issuance in the climate-aligned universe
  • Leader in driving growth in the labelled green bond market
  • China Green Bond Index

Green bonds and the climate-aligned bond universe

  • Green bonds and climate bonds
  • Issuers of green bonds and climate bonds
  • Green definitions
  • GBCC: Green Bond Certification Categories
  • The benefits of green bonds
  • Certified climate bonds
  • The CBI green bond database
  • Climate-aligned issuers
  • The climate-aligned bond universe

Case study: Green Bond European Investor Survey

  • Investment preferences
  • Preferred investment categories
  • Investment decision making
  • Moving the market forwards
  • Emerging markets
  • Green halos, private placements and SRI bonds

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch Break

13.30 - 16.30

Climate bonds

  • The climate bond market
  • Types of climate bond
  • The Climate Bonds Standard and the Climate Bond Standards Board
  • Relative prices of climate bonds and other bonds
  • CBI: the Climate Bonds Initiative
  • Purpose of the Climate Bonds Initiative

Case study: the US Municipal Bond Market - Green City Bonds

  • Climate-aligned investment opportunities
  • The top 3 climate-aligned bond issuers
  • Use of proceeds
  • Labelled green bonds

Issuing bodies

  • National governments
  • Supranationals
  • Green investment banks
  • Municipalities
  • Public-private partnership
  • Purchase contracts

Case study: issuing a green Muni bond

  • Projects which qualify for green bond issuance
  • External second opinions
  • Three reasons to issue green muni bonds
  • How to get certified

ICMA’s Social Bond Principles

  • Use of proceeds
  • Process for project evaluation and selection
  • Management of proceeds
  • Reporting

ICMA’s Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles

  • Selection of key performance indicators (KPIs)
  • Calibration of sustainability performance targets (SPTs)
  • Bond characteristics
  • Reporting
  • Verification

Types of bonds

  • Climate Bonds Initiative: three broad categories:
    • organisation-guaranteed bonds
    • asset-backed securities or secured bonds
    • dual recourse bonds
  • Standard green use of proceeds bonds
  • Green revenue bonds or ABS
  • Green project bonds
  • Green securitised bonds: ABS, covered bonds, MBS
  • Covered bonds
  • Loans
  • Other debt instruments

Case study: Apple Inc., green bond, 0% November 2025, Apple Inc., green bond, 0.5% November 2031

09.30 - 12.30

Pricing green bonds

  • Initial eligibility criteria
  • Continuing eligibility criteria
  • Trends in investor demand
    • Mainstream institutional investors
    • Specialist ESG and responsible investors
    • ‘Greenium’: the green premium
    • Corporate treasury
    • Sovereign and municipal governments
    • Retail investors
      • millennials
      • generations x,y and z
  • The Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change

Exercise: Green Bond Programme Information Template

Exercise: Green Bond Programme External Review Form

The current state of the Climate-Aligned Bond Universe

  • Latest developments
  • The role of institutional investors
  • Labelled green bond issuance
  • The green bond market sectors
    • Transport
    • Water
    • Energy
    • Buildings
    • Industry
    • Waste and pollution control
    • Agriculture & forestry
    • Information and communication technologies
  • Future themes
  • Geographic spread

Case study: Transport for London - GBP 400,000,000 green bond 2.125% April 2025

  • Market timing
  • Internal buy-in from the board and senior management
  • Green credentials - following best practice with a second review
  • Market demand
  • Tracking of green bond proceeds
  • Reporting on green bond use of proceeds and environmental impact
  • TfL’s success paves the way for other low-carbon transport green bonds
  • Issuing a low-carbon transport related green bond

12.30 - 13.30 Lunch Break

13.30 - 16.30

The 10-point case

  • Challenge
  • The solution paths and barriers are largely understood
  • Urgency, Catch 22 and developing countries
  • Climate bonds can fund the transition to a low-carbon economy
  • Volumes required
  • There is more than enough private capital in the world to fund the necessary transition
  • Institutional investors will invest in long-term climate bonds given adequate and secure returns
  • Specific initiatives will depend on delivering secure, long-term returns at competitive levels of risk, rather than on values arguments
  • Transition to a low carbon economy presents the largest commercial opportunity of our time
  • Achieving the scale and speed of development needed will require an active enabling role on the part of governments, at all levels

Case study: lessons from Japan

  • Bonds as instruments of intermediation
  • Long term credit banking
  • LTCBs and municipal bonds
  • Strengths and weaknesses of the system

Summary: environmental theme bonds - a new fixed income asset class

  • Shifting capital flows
  • 21st century theme bonds
  • Liquidity subject to contingent definitions
  • Drivers for a sustainable debt capital market
  • re-weighting by institutional investors
  • Large investors taking an interest in carbon risk
  • Legislative and regulatory pressure
  • Constraints on public spending
  • Potential to become a significant fixed income asset class
  • Issuance review
    • World Bank - green bonds
    • European Investment Bank - Climate Awareness Bond
    • US government - clean renewable energy bonds
    • how Build America Bonds worked
    • Triodos Bank - climate change bonds
  • Potential for new issuance
  • Looking to the future

Review

  • Glossary of terms: Green Investment Bank Commission
  • Scaling up green bond issuance
  • Green finance: green bond directions
  • Climate Bonds Standard

Upcoming seminars in our training calendar
Training catalogue in PDF
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