The International Capital Market Association (ICMA) has released new materials to better support its Green, Social, Sustainability and Sustainability-linked Bond Principles. These include guidance for green-enabling projects, which identifies the role these projects play in catalysing and scaling the climate transition. It encompasses both induced and avoided emissions dimensions, as well as the management of related environmental and social risks. In addition, ICMA and the Loan Market Association have introduced Sustainability-linked Loans financing Bond (SLLB) guidelines to enhance the transparency and credibility of the market. SLLBs are bonds where the proceeds are used to either finance or re-finance a portfolio of new or existing sustainability-linked loans. Further materials published by ICMA included an update to the Sustainable-linked Bond Principles, an expansion of the SLB KPIs [key performance indicator] Registry, and an annex to the impact reporting handbook. “Over the last ten years since the establishment of the Principles, [their] convening power and the body of work that has been produced under [their] auspices – including new innovative products and guidance – has served to support the role that capital markets can play in advancing the sustainability agenda and mobilising finance towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the wider UN Sustainable Development Goals,” said Isabelle Laurent, Chair of the Executive Committee of the Principles at ICMA.
