A blogpost published on the Climate Bonds Initiative internet site on December 15, 2016 reports that Poland is the first sovereign to issue a green bond. According to the post, the Euro 750 million issue was underwritten by HSBC, JP Morgan and PKO Bank Hipoteczny.
The Green Bond Framework published by the State Treasury of the Republic of Poland on December 5, 2016 states that “eligible projects must fall into at least one of the following eligible sectors: afforestation, clean transportation, national parks, reclamation of heaps, renewable energy, sustainable agricultural operations.” The framework provides a list of eligible projects in each of these sectors. The following are ineligible:
- “Burning of fossil fuel for power generation and transportation (in the form of rolling stock)
- Rail infrastructure dedicated for transportation of fossil fuels
- Nuclear power generation
- Palm oil operations
- Production/ provision of weapons / alcohol / gambling / adult entertainment
- Large scale hydro projects – including technology and equipment (i.e. projects that generate greater than 20 MW of electricity)
- Transmission infrastructure and systems where 25% or more of electricity transmitted to the grid is fossil-fuel-generated and
- Use of biomass for cogeneration in coal plants.”
You may read the blog post on the Climate Bonds Initiative internet site.