Moody’s Investors Service is seeking comments on its proposed approach to assessing so-called “green bond” issues, the New York-based credit rating agency announced earlier this month.
Moody’s has published its proposed methodology for evaluating an issuer’s management, administration and reporting on environmental projects financed through green bonds, which are used to raise capital for projects, or activities, that aim to mitigate climate change, or encourage environmental sustainability.
That market is growing, Moody’s reports, with approximately US$42.0 billion worth of these bonds issued in 2015, up from US$36.6 billion in 2014.
Moody’s proposed assessment of green bonds will focus on such factors such as: organization structure and decision making; the use and management of the proceeds of issues; and ongoing reporting and disclosure. The credit rating agency is also introducing a scorecard that will assign weights to each of these factors.
These assessments are not credit ratings. Instead, they aim to evaluate the likelihood that a bond’s proceeds will be invested to support environmentally beneficial projects. They represent forward-looking opinions of the relative effectiveness of the issuer’s approach for managing, administering, allocating proceeds to and reporting on environmental projects financed by green bonds.
Moody’s is seeking market feedback on its proposed methodology by February 12.