Perhaps as an early Christmas gift to the international community rooting for a cross-sectorial solution on combatting climate change, HSBC have announced their commitment to establish the world’s first bond. As explained by HSBC themselves, the bond is closely linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Following seven selected SDG targets, HSBC will fund 1 billion USD through the bond and thus financially support projects set out to increase the sustainable well-being of communities and the environment. The concept is specifically aimed at establishing hospitals, schools and infrastructural improvements.
Although the announcement was published on December 1 and produced some major buzz in the financial sector, HSBC did in fact air their intention to contribute USD 100 billion until 2025 during the COP23 in November. In line with the pledge, HSBC has also developed the Green Bond framework in direct linkage to seven SDGs that will, for example, improve access to education, scale up work with renewables, and support vulnerable communities and their resilience capabilities. For the curious, one could follow the allocations of the funds as the bank publish the progress regularly. The article can be found here and more about the framework and its supporting documents can be found here.
Yet another money-oriented organization makes their pledge to go green
On December 12, World Bank announced during the One Planet Summit their intention on scaling up their climate change related work. Several activities are going to be undertaken, as mentioned on their official website. For one thing, they will no longer sponsor oil and gas. However, it comes with the exception of financing oil and gas extractions in developing countries if it enables the countries to meet their demands of energy and at the same time goes hand in hand with the achievement of reaching the Paris Agreement. The organization further plans to go public with their whereabouts when it comes to their progress on the Climate Change Action Plan during next year’s COP24 meeting in Poland. They also plan to announce steps relating to the creation of the world’s largest green-bond fund, called the Green Cornerstone Bond Fund, which they will do in partnership with Amundi. All in all, with the help of this $2 billion fund, the World Bank and its partners strive to transform mitigation and climate resilience in emerging markets. It is worth noting that in the link, which can be found here, are the many activities in which the World Bank reveals in their statement.
