New markets for green bonds

This document introduces a guide by CDKN and PwC UK on establishing green bond markets in developing economies. It outlines five key building blocks for market success—enabling environment, investors, issuers/pipeline, governance, and standards—and highlights a critical funding gap for the SDGs, noting that 80-90% of necessary climate finance must come from the private sector.

• The guide identifies five essential building blocks for establishing a green bond market: the enabling environment (encompassing taxes, regulation, policies, and market institutions/infrastructure), investors, issuers and project pipeline, governance, and definitions and standards.
• There is a significant global funding gap for sustainable development; the United Nations estimates an annual requirement of $2.5 trillion to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with $1 trillion of that specifically needed for clean energy.
• Because public sector balance sheets lack the capacity to meet climate finance needs, it is estimated that 80–90% of the required funding must be sourced from the private sector, necessitating the leverage of capital markets, insurance, and peer-to-peer sources.
• The guide was developed to assist developing markets in using capital markets to link institutional private capital with projects that have positive environmental impacts, drawing on CDKN's project assessing the green bond market potential in Colombia.

APA

Williams, J., Jones, A., & Pickin, S. (2017). New markets for green bonds. Climate and Development Knowledge Network. https://cdkn.org/resource/guide-new-markets-green-bonds-2

Chicago

Williams, Jon, Andy Jones, and Sarah Pickin. New markets for green bonds. Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2017. https://cdkn.org/resource/guide-new-markets-green-bonds-2.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Williams |first1=Jon |last2=Jones |first2=Andy |last3=Pickin |first3=Sarah |title=New markets for green bonds |publisher=Climate and Development Knowledge Network |date=7 July 2017 |url=https://cdkn.org/resource/guide-new-markets-green-bonds-2 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{williams2017new, author = {Williams, Jon and Jones, Andy and Pickin, Sarah}, title = {{New markets for green bonds}}, institution = {Climate and Development Knowledge Network}, year = {2017}, month = jul, url = {https://cdkn.org/resource/guide-new-markets-green-bonds-2}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }