American cities borrowing to fund environmentally-friendly projects were a key driver of green bond
issuance in January, data compiled by Bloomberg NEF show.
Green muni bond sales — including deals from San Francisco’s Public
Utilities Commission, New York City’s
Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Maine’s Governmental Facilities Authority — jumped to about $3.4 billion from about $500 million in the first month of 2019.
That helped push the global tally of green bonds issued during the month to about $17.2 billion, in line with the $17.4 billion raised in January last year.
Companies — mostly European power utilities — issued about $4.5 billion in green
debt, a drop from about $9.7 billion raised in the first month of 2019.
Germany’s
E.ON sold $1.1 billion in green bonds. Portugal’s EDP, which aims to slash emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, raised about $800 million. The
bond grader expects issuance to hit $300 billion in 2020.