China is preparing for the listing of its first overseas sovereign green bond, which will take place in London as the frontrunner in the energy transition race seeks to tap the international investor pool.
The size and timing of the listing are yet to be divulged but the Singapore portfolio manager told Bloomberg that it should be at least $3 billion.
“It’s positive that China wants to give a new impetus to the green finance market,” a researcher from transition advocacy the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysistold Bloomberg, which suggested in its report on the news that the listing would test investors’ appetite for investing in “the world’s top polluter.”
China is the country with the most installed and operating wind and solar power generation capacity, the most EVs on the roads, and the biggest source of hydrocarbon-associated carbon dioxide emissions.
Green bonds are seen as a key part of the transition—a tool for raising money for transition-related activities when subsidies are not enough. Last year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, green bond issuance globally reached $708 billion, which was an 8% increase on 2023, with European companies and governments accounting for the biggest single portion of the total.
China’s share in global green bond issuance has varied, with the 2022 total higher than both the 2021 national total and the country’s share for 2023 and 2024.
Things could change this year and in the near future, with Asia as a whole turning into a significant new source of green bonds, according to Bloomberg.
“China is the last savior of the green transition,” Natixis’ chief economist for Asia Pacific, Alicia Garcia Herrero, told the publication, adding that green debt could become “another layer of the argument, and there’s a lot of demand in Europe.”
Source: Oilprice.com
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