Statkraft Climate Roundtable 2015

CLIMATE ROUNDTABLE - TOWARDS A GREENER FUTURE

many green bond issuers are seeking independent environmental

assessments of their investment frameworks. Independent

second opinions provide environmental due diligence at the time

of issuance on green bond investment frameworks.

The role of financial markets

Climate finance will be crucial to achieve a global climate

agreement in Paris at the end of this year. Governments alone

cannot deliver the amounts of money that are needed to support

a transition to a low-carbon economy. Private sector and financial

markets will have an important role in raising climate finance

and are increasingly aware of that. Several pension funds have

decided to exclude coal from their investments. This spring, the

Norwegian Parliament will discuss how to improve the ethical

guidelines of the Government Pension Fund (one of the world’s

largest sovereign wealth funds) in a climate-friendly way. The

challenge is to find the financial instruments that channel capital

to climate-friendly investments on a commercial basis. CICERO is

contributing with its research on climate finance and green bonds.

CICERO second opinions

CICERO has been the leading market provider of green bond

second opinions since the market’s inception in 2007. CICERO

second opinions focus on the potential environmental impacts of

the types of projects to be financed by the green bond, and also

consider the confidence of the issuing institution’s capacity to

fulfill the environmental aims of the green bond framework.

CICERO has provided second opinions for approximately 30

green bonds to date, across a range of issuers from multi-

lateral development banks, corporations, municipalities, and

government-related entities. Issuers that used a CICERO second

opinion include World Bank, European Bank of Reconstruction

and Development, African Development Bank, Korea Export

Import Bank, the city of Gothenburg in Sweden, the province

of Ontario in Canada, Vasakronan Properties, in addition to

Kommunalbanken and BKK in Norway.