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A pre-summer bout of green, social and sustainability issuance from Germany’s federal states highlighted their burgeoning activity in the market as well as the environmental and social tasks they face. Representatives of the five Länder to have issued GSS bonds spoke to Sustainabonds’ Neil Day about their rationale for entering the market, what make their frameworks distinctive, and how their issuance is evolving in light of market and regulatory developments.

The expansion of green, social and sustainable or sustainability-linked formats into short term instruments has the potential to boost overall volumes and impact, and pioneers have already begun testing appetite in the commercial paper market. However, the sector’s intrinsic characteristics raise questions over how to best exploit its potential. In this special Sustainabonds report, sponsored by ABN AMRO, Neil Day explores experience to date and asks what could catalyse growth.

As the first European bank to have had its decarbonisation trajectory SBTi-validated and other pioneering steps, La Banque Postale can credibly claim to ’walk the talk’.

Nationale-Nederlanden Bank (NN Bank) on 10 May issued the first Dutch green covered bond, reinforcing the group’s ESG drive, including the establishment in 2020 of Woonnu, a mortgage provider aimed at incentivising sustainable living. Sustainabonds’ Neil Day discussed the varied dimensions of the bank’s sustainability strategy with NN Bank’s Niek Allon, head of treasury, Sander Roling, funding manager, and Patricia Plass, head of ESG office and CEO of Woonnu.

A year on from the first conversion of an issuer’s conventional bonds into green bonds, by Gecina, Crédit Agricole CIB hosted a roundtable to discuss such innovative exercises and to pioneer liability management strategies that enable issuers to accelerate their transition to sustainable finance.

Public sector issuers are at the forefront of green and social bond markets as they seek to support society in transitioning, justly, to a sustainable future. Demand is buoyant, supported by regulatory developments, but challenges remain, notably in determining appropriate standards on the social side. Sustainabonds gathered leading players to tackle the key issues facing the sector in a roundtable discussion finalised in mid-February.

Loans to local government bodies large and small are behind SFIL’s green bond issuance, and the French group anticipates complementing this with social lending, according to CEO Philippe Mills and colleagues.

Issuers lacking projects appropriate to use-of-proceeds green bonds but with clear sustainability targets and transition strategies are increasingly finding sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) a viable alternative for reflecting their ESG ambitions in the capital markets. In this special report, sponsored by ABN AMRO, Sustainabonds’ Neil Day explores the surge in issuance and finds out what issuers need to be doing to win over investors.