Chinese green bond issuance reaches 1.2 trillion yuan, unified standards speed up

With the background of the country's green development strategy, my country's green bond issuance continues to increase. According to Wind’s latest data, since this year, as of press time, a total of 39 green bonds of 23.21 billion yuan have been issued in the entire market, which is a 22% increase in the scale of financing compared with 23 of 19.02 billion yuan in the same period last year. Since the official launch of my country's green bond market in 2016, the cumulative scale of green bond issuance has reached 1.2 trillion yuan, making it the world's second largest green bond market.

On February 24, Jiangsu Zhongguancun Science and Technology Industrial Park Holding Group Co., Ltd. formally issued the 2021 non-public issuance of green corporate bonds (Phase 1). On February 9, the first batch of 6 carbon neutral bonds in China was successfully issued. The six issuers are China Southern Power Grid, Three Gorges Corporation, Huaneng Power International, State Power Investment Corporation, Sichuan Airport Group and Yalong River Hydropower. The six carbon neutral bonds are all general medium-term notes for more than two years, with a total issuance of 6.4 billion yuan. Among them, 5 bonds are related to hydropower projects, and 1 bond is related to the construction of green transportation projects. The raised funds are used for low-carbon emission reduction fields such as clean energy, clean transportation, and green buildings.

The Haitong Securities report stated that carbon neutral bonds are a sub-species of green bonds, which refers to the use of funds raised specifically for green bonds with carbon emission reduction benefits under the current policy framework. Different from ordinary green bonds, this batch of carbon-neutral bonds is more targeted for the purpose of raising funds, and it is expected that the benefits of environmental improvement will be significant.

The Lianhe Credit Report believes that the new "Catalogue of Green Bond Supported Projects" in 2021 is expected to officially land, and my country's trillion green bond market will usher in a unified standard. In addition, the release of the new version of the catalog will provide an important reference for the unification of my country's green finance standards. With the advancement of China's green finance standard system, the synergy between my country's green bond standards and green credit standards is expected to be further strengthened.