Denmark Edges Closer to Issuing Its First Green Debt
Denmark Edges Closer to Issuing Its First Green Debt
(Bloomberg) -- Denmark’s finance minister signaled the Nordic country, among the European Union’s most-ambitious member states for climate goals, is edging closer to issuing its first green debt.
“I see green bonds as a part of the answer to how we can secure financing of climate efforts going forward in both the EU and in Denmark,” Nicolai Wammen said by phone before Wednesday’s Finance Day at the United Nations COP26 conference in Glasgow.
“That’s why we in Denmark are working with determination to announce green bonds as a part of the solution,” he said, without elaborating on timing.
Seeking to fund projects like renewable energy, the EU is leading the way in green issuance, with an expected pipeline of as much as 250 billion euros ($290 billion) set to make it the world’s biggest borrower in this category.
As investor interest soars, meanwhile, global sales of bonds complying with environmental, social and governance criteria are on track to hit $1 trillion in 2023.
Triple-A rated Denmark has been discussing selling green bonds since 2019, when the government asked the central bank to devise a plan. The financing would help it meet a pledge to reduce carbon emissions by 70% compared with 1990 levels no later than 2030.
Wammen says recent EU efforts to find common ground on taxonomy and a joint set of rules for what makes a bond green constitutes important progress to ensure credibility among investors.
But he urged his international colleagues to start delivering on promises of the past -- such as a 2009 commitment at COP15 in Copenhagen by the leaders of the world’s richest countries to provide $100 billion a year to emerging nations starting in 2020.
“Now’s the time,” Wammen said. “We need other countries to step up too in order to support the crucial transition efforts in developing countries.”
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