How green bonds could unleash the Kraken of energy transition

[MindMover]

The London-based Climate Bonds Initiative, a non-governmental organization (NGO) facilitating the growth of the green bond market, defines a green bond as "one for which the issuer declares that the proceeds will be applied (either by ring-fencing, direct project exposure or securitization) towards climate and/or environmental sustainability purposes."

As CEO and co-founder Sean Kidney wrote in a Nov. 1 post, "green bonds are about the 'green' qualities of the underlying asset, not whether a company is relatively green or not."

I asked Kidney why green bonds are necessary. "We have to rapidly speed up and scale up the capital that's flowing toward climate change solutions -- both mitigation and adaptation," he explains. "Climate scientists tell us we need a low-climate world by 2050, and we have to move quickly to get there. We have to be moving capital now."

"A big chunk of our work is explaining to government how they can finance a rapid transition. There's definitely not enough government money to do it all, as well as deal with the disasters we're going to have, especially if you look at the scale of what's just happened in the Philippines. We need to make everything we possibly can a private sector investment to free up public money for the more urgent tasks."

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/the-take/releasing-the-kraken-of-energy-transition/?tag=nl.e662&s_cid=e662&ttag=e662&ftag=TRE383a915

[Nihil]

1. Oh goody ... more bankers stealing money, more dilution of the "green" message, more scams, ...

> We need to make everything we possibly can a private sector investment

There is nothing, no concept, no activity that disaster capitalists will not abuse
if there is a chance to fire up a new shell-game to con the gullible into parting
with their money for a fistful of promises for "the future" ...

[MindMover]

2. Yes but wait, let me hear what you have to say about an alternative ... Mr. Nihil ism ....

"We have to rapidly speed up and scale up the capital that's flowing toward climate change solutions -- both mitigation and adaptation," he explains. "Climate scientists tell us we need a low-climate world by 2050, and we have to move quickly to get there. We have to be moving capital now."

"A big chunk of our work is explaining to government how they can finance a rapid transition. There's definitely not enough government money to do it all, as well as deal with the disasters we're going to have, especially if you look at the scale of what's just happened in the Philippines. We need to make everything we possibly can a private sector investment to free up public money for the more urgent tasks."