A fresh initiative

Launched on 14 December 2009, the Climate Bonds Initiative is a global civil society network created to serve as a catalyst for the rapid emergence of Climate Bonds.

Climate Bonds would involve large scale issuance of long-term debt to overcome medium term investment barriers preventing the achievement of economies of scale in low-carbon industry sectors. The bonds can finance a global transition at speed and at scale.

Download our (easy-to-read) 4 pager introduction – click here. This will give a picture of who we are, what we’re doing and why.

Download our (easy-to-read, but rather long) 20 page discussion paper – click here. It’s still a draft, with recommendations to be added before we launch it early in the New Year. But you can see where our thinking is going.

The Great Innovation

The bond market is the great innovation that distinguishes western capitalism from previous economic systems. The idea of a climate bond is an extension of the green bond concept. Green bonds are issued by a government or corporate entity in order to raise the finance for an environmental project.    >>>> More

A long term investment

The trajectory of renewable energy generation costs is downward, and has been for the past 20 years. Generation costs will continue to decline, eventually being lower than fossil-fuel energy costs, particularly if aided by the economies of scale of large-scale developments. Investibility will be enhanced by using accelerated economies of scale to bring forward cost savings from declining renewable energy prices or from reduced energy consumption.