Some Considerations on the Green Bonds Market Development
The article discusses current trends in the global bond market. Particular attention was paid to green bonds. The purpose of the article is to identify the conditions for green bonds issues in the context of changes in the environment and financial market conditions. More than 600 issues of such securities throughout the world were analyzed over the years 2010-2016. The analysis included the issuer's nationality structure, bond’s maturity and yield to maturity, the currency the bonds were denominated in and bond’s risk assessment. We also analyzed changes in NOx and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and energy consumption. Data were obtained from the World Bank and Thomson Reuters’s Eikon databases. Statistical study was supplemented with literature studies of green bonds reports. Using descriptive statistics analysis (arithmetic mean, median, standard deviation) and significance test of differences it has been shown that green bonds are primarily used to finance investments in highly developed countries. This means that their direct impact on the environment is difficult to be identified. Beneficiaries are mainly companies developing new technologies. In turn, issues from poorer regions are also targeted to the developed capital markets to reduce the cost of financing. This means that the “green nature” of these bonds is highly debated, and the environmental aspect seems to be only a lure for investors.
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