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Luxembourg and China’s green revolution

ONE YEAR AGO, THE LUXEMBOURG STOCK EXCHANGE LAUNCHED THE LUXEMBOURG GREEN EXCHANGE (LGX), THE FIRST DEDICATED PLATFORM IN THE WORLD FOR GREEN, SOCIAL AND SUSTAINABLE SECURITIES. THE LGX REMAINS THE ONLY PLATFORM OF ITS KIND, CURRENTLY LISTING MORE THAN HALF OF THE WORLD’S GREEN BONDS. AS A RESULT OF ITS UNIQUE POSITION, THE LUXEMBOURG EXCHANGE HAS DEEPENED ITS SOLID RELATION WITH CHINA, THE LARGEST GREEN BOND ISSUER GLOBALLY. WE TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT THIS IMPORTANT CO-OPERATION AND THE VARIOUS MILESTONES ACHIEVED IN THE PAST MONTHS.

FROM GREEN BOND INDEXES TO A GREEN BOND CHANNEL

As the green bond market is growing rapidly, China has already assumed a leading role. 7 out of 10 largest green bonds last year were issued by Chinese issuers, raising US$33.7 billion or nearly 40 percent of all new green bonds. It was followed by the United States, France and Germany, according to Moody's Investor Services, the bond credit rating agency.

China needs to access the international investor community for around 50pc of its funding of green bonds and so requires innovative global partnerships to do so. Therefore, earlier this year, Luxembourg and China decided to build bridges through the launch of the Green Bond Index Series.

“The green bond indexes are displayed simultaneously on the Shanghai, Shenzhen and the Luxembourg stock exchanges and are important milestones to raise awareness about the performance of Chinese green bonds,” explains Robert Scharfe, CEO of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

China is the only country so far to have developed such a privileged partnership with LGX. Luxembourg is the global reference platform for information about green securities, while China has a highly developed plan to issue green bonds to benefit its environment and economy.

The relationship is set to deepen and develop. We now want to go one step further and set up a Green Bond Channel,” explains Mr. Scharfe. “This channel will make the investible, underlying instruments of the indexes visible and accessible for international investors,” he adds.

Robert Scharfe, CEO of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange

The new Green Bond Channel will not only display on the LGX the Chinese green bonds listed on the Shanghai exchange, but will also make the main terms and documents of the underlying bonds available in English.

Investors will be able to access this information and use the traditional channels such as QFII and RQFII as well as the stock connect programs to buy the instruments directly in China.

SUSTAINABILITY MEANS LONG-TERM

For the moment, the bond market is still dominated by the multilateral development banks which typically finance long-term infrastructure projects. The proceeds usually go to infrastructure, energy and transportation projects.

We need to develop a green bond market that allows not only multilateral banks, but also companies to fund longer term. One of the challenges in China is that many infrastructure projects are funded on a 3-4 year basis and need to be refinanced a couple of times before the project is ultimately finished. Having a long-term predictability of finance is of out most importance,” underlines Mr. Scharfe.

Take the infrastructure projects under the “One Belt One Road” initiative for example. Launched in 2013, the initiative involves China underwriting billions of dollars of infrastructure investment in countries along the old Silk Road, linking it with Europe. These projects typically need long term funding of 10 years and above.

China is spending roughly $150bn a year in the 68 countries that have signed up to the scheme.

THE GREEN EQUITY INDEX

In addition to the green bond indices, the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF), the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE), the China Securities Index company (CSI), and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange jointly launched in September 2017 a green equity index based on the CSI 300 Index. On the basis of this index, an agreement was signed to display on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange the CSI 300 Green Leading Stock Index which groups the 100 most important companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges.

“Here we don’t speak about the greenness of the project but about the greenness of the company itself. Because this is more complex to determine, the IIGF and CUFE have established a sophisticated methodology in collaboration with the CBI,” continues Mr Scharfe.

The CSI 300 Green Leading Stock Index uses an innovative and comprehensive methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative indicators, as well as negative behaviours of listed companies. All the companies are ranked according to their levels of greenness.

The index will be available for international investors and serve as guidance for the establishment of financial instruments, derivatives and ETFs.

DIFFERENT SHADES OF GREEN

In order to fully support international investors in their decision-making, education and transparency are critical.

Education helps investors understand what is green and what is less, the taxonomies and the projects that qualify and those that are excluded. The information needs to be easily accessible and complete. Exchanges play a fundamental role in creating this transparency and help investors to take a closer look at the underlying documentation and to compare the different instruments.

“There will always be different shades of green, but investors need to be in a position to assess themselves the greenness of a project and whether it fits their investment strategy,” says Mr. Scharfe.

Green bonds also have some additional transaction costs because issuers must track, monitor and report on the use of proceeds.

However, many green bond issuers can off set the initial cost with a range of benefits they sign up for when issuing green.

"Investing responsibly and receiving a good return are perfectly compatible objectives. Compared to plain vanilla bonds, most green bonds tend to perform better after issuance which can be explained, to a certain extent, by the poor liquidity of the instrument and the imbalance of supply and demand for green bonds. More recently, a number of issuers, certain multilateral and Chinese banks, have priced their green bonds tighter. There seems to be sufficient demand at slightly lower performance which compensates the issuer for the extra reporting he has to do.”

ALIGNING STANDARDS

In September, ICBC Luxembourg displayed on LGX its green bonds dedicated to finance renew able energy projects, low carbon and low-emission transportation, energy efficiency and management of sustainable water resources. Raised proceeds will support both domestic provinces as well as foreign countries key to the Belt and Road initiative.

ICBC is the first Chinese bank whose Green Bond Framework is aligned with both international and Chinese green standards; it is also the first Chinese bank to receive a “Dark Green” second opinion by the Centre for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO).

This alignment is important. The lack of consistent standards and information disclosure requirements for green bonds between different markets is sometimes a barrier to cross-border green capital flows.

At worst, this could lead to duplication of green bond verifications and result in increased transaction costs.

“In order to create more coherence, China makes huge efforts to align numerous local standards. In parallel, there is a lot of determination in the international markets to co-operate with China to bridge the gap between the two sets of standards in which both parties operate. There are different specificities, but I don’t think there are fundamental gaps that are unbridgeable,” reassures Mr. Scharfe.

On the margins of the COP 23 climate talks in Bonn, the Green Finance Committee (GFC) of the China Society for Finance and Banking and the European Investment Bank (EIB) launched a White Paper that provides an international comparison of several green bond standards. The new paper should pave the way for enhanced consistency of green finance definitions and principles between China and the EU, by comparing different use-of-proceeds classifications and including examination of sector definitions, environmental policy objectives and project eligibility criteria.

THE FUTURE OF FINANCE IS GREEN, AND THE FUTURE IS NOW!

At the recent twice-a-decade Communist Party congress, president Xi Jinping endorsed green finance on the country’s biggest stage.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s de facto central bank is reportedly planning to issue a green bond next year to attract global investors and cultivate the local market.

“Our conviction is that green and sustainable finance will determine finance in the future. Every international financial centre needs to focus more on sustainable investment instruments and therefore it is necessary for everyone to embrace green finance in a more decisive way ,” concludes Mr. Scharfe.

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