UNDP offers Green Bonds trainings to climate professionals

For the first 5 years of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), little progress was made in achieving the targets. The 2020 Sustainable Development Goals Report pointed out that even before the COVID 19 pandemic, food insecurity was on the rise, natural environment continued to deteriorate, and inequality persisted in all regions. The February 2021 UNFCCC synthesis report of the NDCs submitted before COP 26 alarmingly highlighted that the projected emission reductions fall significantly short of the reductions needed to limit global warming to below 1.5 o C or even 2oC.

Accelerating action will require more than renewing pledges or increasing ambition: the financing gap to achieve both the SDG and targets of the Paris Agreement by 2030 is estimated to be 2.5 trillion USD for the SDG and $100 billion for the Paris Agreement. Reducing this gap will not only mean redirecting public and private investments but also tapping into innovative financing mechanisms such as Green Bonds.

Green Bonds are particularly well suited to finance sustainable development and climate action in the context of the NDC and of green recovery. In 2020 alone, green bonds provided over 200 billion USD of investment to governments and corporations to finance energy projects, green buildings, waste projects etc. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the green bond market has been particularly dominated by sovereign issuers who see it as a source of finance for recovery efforts.

However, awareness on the opportunities offered by green bonds as well as capacity for bond issuances and even the structuring of green bonds remain very low in many countries supported by UNDP. In Africa for instance, only Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Seychelles have issued sovereign green or blue bonds to date. In Latin America, Chile, Brazil and Mexico are leading the way on new issuances. In Asia Pacific, general interest is finally growing after the recent issuances from Fiji, Bhutan and Indonesia.

To fill this knowledge gap, several UNDP programmes have joined forces to build an online training on Green Bonds that will be delivered to a wide range of government officials and climate professionals. The programmes are namely the NDC Support Programme, the Inclusive Budgeting for Climate Change in Africa Programme, the Governance of Climate Change Finance for Asia Pacific and the Finance Sector Hub.

The training, organized by UNDP, aims to familiarize the participants about the latest developments in the Green Bond market, existing taxonomies and classification systems adopted, and the lifecycle of a Green Bond issuance - Pre-issuance considerations, Issuance and Post-issuance considerations.

Participants can opt to take the training in English, French or Spanish.

To enroll in the course, please follow these steps:

• Create an account on UNDP Learning for Nature platform here.
• Activate your account from the e-mail message you receive from the platform.
• Sign in to Learning for Nature here.
• Go to the course page here.
• Click Enroll to register for the course.

The French version is available here.

The Spanish version is available here.

For further information on the trainings, you can contact Catherine Diam-Valla.