BIS plans Asian Green Bond Fund for central banks
- New BIS Asian Green Bond Fund will help channel central bank reserves to green projects in the Asia Pacific region
- The Fund will be a strong addition to the suite of existing green bond funds at the BIS
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today announced the development of an Asian Green Bond Fund, in collaboration with the development financing community, to channel global central bank reserves to green projects in the Asia Pacific region.
In consultation with global central banks, the fund will be designed to provide a pipeline for central banks to invest in high-quality bonds issued by sovereigns, supranationals, and corporates that comply with strict international green standards.
The fund will work closely with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other development financial institutions as well as other issuers.
This initiative to connect the central banking community with the development financing community represents a concrete contribution in our collective efforts to combat climate change in the Asia-Pacific, a region that not only has the largest need for green infrastructure investments, but also is among the most vulnerable if actions to combat climate change are not taken urgently.
ADB is committed to addressing climate change and has recently raised its climate finance level of ambition to $100 billion. The combination of ADB's growing pipeline of investable projects and its green bond program can help pool additional resources into green infrastructure financing in Asia and the Pacific. The ADB-BIS collaboration is an important milestone towards creating confidence to channel resources to support the greening of Asian economies.
The BIS Asian green bond fund will be launched in early 2022 and will complement two green bond funds already launched by the BIS over the past two years, one denominated in dollars and one in euros.