Issuers sold US$47.2bn of Green bonds globally in the first quarter of 2019, according to a report by Moody’s Investors Service.
The following are excerpts of the report released on Thursday.
- Financial and non-financial corporates drove year-over-year growth of Green bonds, with European issuers accounting for approximately half the total.
- Euro-denominated Green bonds accounted for 48% of the total volume, followed by US dollar-denominated issuance at 24%.
- Q1 Green bond issuance, which set a first-quarter record, represents a 40% year-over-year increase, and puts the market roughly in line to hit Moody’s 2019 forecast of US$200bn.
- Q1 volume trails only the fourth quarters of 2017 and 2018 for the largest quarterly issuance to date.
- Green bonds accounted for 2.5% of total first-quarter global bond issuance, up from 1.7% in the first quarters of both 2017 and 2018.
- There was US$15.9bn of non-financial corporate Green bonds and US$8.1bn of financial corporate Green bonds sold, accounting for 34% and 17% of total volume, respectively.
- Local government and government-backed entities accounted for a combined 24% of issuance, up from 15% for the whole of 2018.
- In Q1, energy and building-related projects continued to lead with a combined 54% of issuance.
- Transportation Green bonds showed a significant increase compared to previous quarters.
- Notable sectors in which issuance declined include development banks, which accounted for just 5% of issuance during the quarter, and asset-backed securities, which accounted for 7% compared to 15% for the whole of 2018.
- Seven non-financial corporate issuers brought Green bond tranches of US$1bn or more to market in the first quarter.