Fernando Rodríguez | The Treasury will issue its first sovereign green bond “in the second half of this year,” as announced by Pablo de Ramón-Laca, Director General of the Treasury and Financial Policy. He revealed this in his opening speech at the Ofiso 2021 Annual Meeting on Sustainable Finance, which was recently held in virtual format. De Ramón-Laca explained that this first bond will form part of the Treasury’s Green Bond Issuance Programme, which aims to be a “structural component of the Treasury’s financing policy.”
He also announced a National Sustainable Finance Plan, on which an inter-ministerial working group chaired by the Vice-President and Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, is already working. He said this will be a “guide for channelling public and private savings towards sustainable projects.” It will also be a “structural coordination framework that will transform the Spanish financial sector” and facilitate its focus on sustainable financing.
33 billion euros mobilised in 2020, a 45% increase
Around twenty experts and professionals who operate directly in this sustainable financing market took part in the meeting of Ofiso, which mobilised a total of 33 billion euros in Spain in 2020, up 45% according to the firm’s annual report. So one out of every 10 euros in corporate financing in the Spanish capital market is sustainable.
Specifically, green, social and sustainable bond issues in Spain in 2020 accounted for 15 billion euros, 54% more than the previous year. For their part, sustainable loans contributed 18 billion euros, an increase of 38%.
