Australian green bond issuance is on pace for a record-breaking year, lifted by the new government’s commitment to emissions cuts and other action on climate change.
So far in 2022, 4.6 billion Australian dolllars (about ¥433 billion) of green debt has been issued and looks set to pass last year’s AU$6 billion total, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A surge in Australian-dollar issuance over the past 10 months has fueled this year’s sales, which are 150% higher compared with the same time last year.
Australia’s sustainable debt industry got an important boost from May’s federal election, which secured a record vote for the Greens and cemented climate policy as a priority for the Labor government, said Susan Barron, global head of sustainable capital markets at Barclays, one of the top 10 managers for sales of such bonds.