Post-issuance reporting in the green bond market 2021

The report finds that while post-issuance UoP reporting is widespread, impact reporting is less common and highly unstandardised. It highlights a positive correlation between reporting availability and the presence of external reviews, particularly post-issuance reviews. The analysis reveals that larger issuers and more mature markets generally report more frequently, though average quality scores remain relatively constant across deal sizes. The document argues for a shift toward a common global reporting framework and the use of absolute rather than relative metrics to provide a holistic view of environmental performance.

• Post-issuance reporting is common, but use-of-proceeds (UoP) disclosure is more frequent than impact reporting. Specifically, 77% of issuers and 88% of the amount issued provided UoP reporting, compared to 59% of issuers and 74% of the amount issued reporting on impacts.
• There is a strong positive correlation between the availability of reporting and external reviews. Bonds with no review are significantly less likely to have post-issuance reporting (34% by amount issued), whereas 100% of deals with only a post-issuance review had reporting.
• Reporting availability is positively correlated with deal size, with larger issuers more likely to report. The most significant increase in reporting by issuer count occurs between the USD 100-500m and USD 500m-1bn brackets, rising from 78% to 92%.
• While larger issuers report more frequently, the average quality of reporting is not necessarily higher. The average, median, and maximum quality scores are relatively constant across all deal size brackets, although larger issuers are less likely to produce poor-quality reporting.
• European issuers are the most consistent in reporting quality, with scores ranging from 10 to 25 points. In contrast, Asia-Pacific and North America exhibit wider ranges of quality scores.
• Impact reporting is highly unstandardised, making comparability and aggregation difficult. A primary cause is the frequent use of relative metrics, such as GHG emissions saved, which depend on varying baselines.
• The report identifies a preference for relative metrics over absolute ones. Approximately ten times more issuers report GHG/CO2 saved/avoided/reduced than report absolute emissions or intensity.
• Most issuers report impacts at the project level (60% for all projects), but larger issuers tend to report with less project granularity, often using programme-level reporting.
• The ICMA Harmonized Framework and the Nordic Public Sector Issuers (NPSI) Position Paper are the two most comprehensive and widely adopted impact reporting methodologies, though they only cover a minority of the market.
• The report argues that current UoP-focused impact reporting is incomplete because it ignores the full supply chain and life cycle of products, and fails to capture the total absolute impact of an entity.

APA

Almeida, M., & Lonikar, P. (2021). Post-issuance reporting in the green bond market 2021. Climate Bonds Initiative. https://www.climatebonds.net/files/documents/publications/Post-Issuance-Reporting-in-the-Green-Bond-Market-2021.pdf

Chicago

Almeida, Miguel, and Prashant Lonikar. Post-issuance reporting in the green bond market 2021. Climate Bonds Initiative, 2021. https://www.climatebonds.net/files/documents/publications/Post-Issuance-Reporting-in-the-Green-Bond-Market-2021.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Almeida |first1=Miguel |last2=Lonikar |first2=Prashant |title=Post-issuance reporting in the green bond market 2021 |publisher=Climate Bonds Initiative |date=May 2021 |url=https://www.climatebonds.net/files/documents/publications/Post-Issuance-Reporting-in-the-Green-Bond-Market-2021.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{almeida2021postissuance, author = {Almeida, Miguel and Lonikar, Prashant}, title = {{Post-issuance reporting in the green bond market 2021}}, institution = {Climate Bonds Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = may, url = {https://www.climatebonds.net/files/documents/publications/Post-Issuance-Reporting-in-the-Green-Bond-Market-2021.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }