The funds linked to this bond will contribute to guaranteeing the availability of water, its sustainable management and promoting sanitation.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced this Wednesday in the framework of the COP26 climate summit the issuance of the first “blue bond” linked to ocean health and water cleanliness in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The funds linked to this bond will help support the sixth UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), which urges to guarantee the availability of water, its sustainable management and promote sanitation.
Through IDB Invest, the investment arm of the IDB that directs its activities towards the private sector, bonds will be issued with a total value of 50 million Australian dollars, with a fixed rate of ten years.
To combat the climate emergency and advance towards the UN development goals, “not only governments have a role to play. I believe that the private sector, more than ever, also has an important role ”, he told Efe James Scriven, CEO of IDB Invest.
“Latin America and the Caribbean constitute one of the continents with the largest number of populations settled near the limits of seas and oceans,” so they must prepare especially for the consequences of climate change, Scriven warned.
About 25% of the inhabitants of Latin America live on the coast, while the Caribbean includes many islands and small states vulnerable to the devastating effects of global warming.
“Blue bonds are emerging as an innovative financial solution to mobilize capital and create sustainable business opportunities in the area of oceans and water protection,” Scriven added.
For his part, the president of the Inter-American Development Bank, Mauricio Claver-Carone, highlighted that “with this first blue bond, the IDB Group is promoting a new perspective on financing climate actions and attracting new investors to Latin America and the Caribbean”.
This bond is the sixth sustainable debt product launched this year by the agency, which has issued 1.6 billion dollars in a bond linked to sustainability, two social bonds and two green bonds, in addition to the new blue bond.
These advances form the basis for promoting other emissions in the future in the framework of sectors such as resilient ports with low carbon emissions, the circular economy and sustainable tourism, the IDB emphasizes.
Development finance institutions have played an essential role in the last decade in boosting the credibility of bonds linked to climate measures, especially around so-called green bonds.
The IDB’s investment arm considers blue bonds to be “where green bonds were ten years ago” and is committed to developing the blue market in the same direction. (I)
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