The EU's Green Taxonomy and the Rise of Social Bonds in Asia
Our guests discuss the EU’s controversial move to add natural gas and nuclear to its green taxonomy, and the increased issuance of social bonds driving change in Asia.
- This will undermine the credibility of the EU’s green labels to some extent
- If we were to compare to a food labelling scheme, of course there would be outrage if a product was labelled as dairy free but actually contained a dairy product.
- Social bond issuance has gained much more prominence during the Covid pandemic with the resulting global inequality driving an agenda of a ‘just transition’
In this episode of ESG360, we discuss green taxonomies with Andrew Bowley, wholesale governance officer at Nomura. In a controversial move, the EU has allowed natural gas and nuclear into its green taxonomy. The decision has caused uproar among climate activists who accuse policy-makers of greenwashing and undermining efforts to accelerate the green transition. We also discuss social bonds with Nomura’s Mark Yeomans, a specialist in ESG debt. Asia’s social bond market has been rising rapidly amid a flurry of recent deals including a health bond for the Asian Development Bank fueling optimism in the region after the setback of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Contributor
Andrew Bowley
Managing Director – Sustainability Governance Officer
Mark Yeomans
Managing Director, DCM Public Sector Team
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