The International Capital Market Association ("ICMA") has published its much anticipated Climate Transition Finance Handbook
1 (the "Handbook"). Unlike previous releases, the Handbook does not comprise a formal set of 'Transition Bond Principles', nor seek to create a distinct asset class of 'transition bonds', but rather seeks to give guidance to issuers on devising and evidencing their overarching sustainable transition strategies and the bonds they issue to achieve them. The Handbook can be used in conjunction with the existing sustainable finance principles.
2020: the year for transitioning issuers
2020 has been another evolutionary year for sustainable finance in spite of market volatility mainly brought about by the fall out of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year the sustainable bond market opened up to a new class of issuer – the climate transitioning issuer. These are issuers who are at a point further away from having a business model consistent with the Paris Agreement targets, some of whom cannot presently allocate large quantities of capital exclusively to projects which are identifiably green under the Green Bond Principles