| Popis: |
The Climate Bond Initiative’s ‘Green Bond’ certification process is a new and challenging situation for the State of California’s municipal bond issuers. When issuing a new bond that incorporates environmental climate bond acts, municipal bond issuers must consider the cost versus value to labeling a bond as green. Using a thematic literature review methodology, this paper analyzes the intersection between municipal bonds and green bonds and provides an analysis through a case study of two municipal bond issuances – one green and one conventional. This case-study serves as an example for policymakers to evaluate the labeling of a municipal bond as ‘green’ or not. We provide to policy decisionmakers an analytical synthesis of a three-pronged decision fork of whether the issuing of a ‘conventional’ municipal bond, a municipal ‘green’ bond, or of a ‘certified green municipal bond’ impacts the environmental objectives, financial readiness and investor appetite of each of those courses of action. This three-pronged decision-tree provides further environmental context and fills in the gap in the literature with an off-the-shelf example for policymakers. Lastly, in our analysis of the literature, we find that the ‘green-bond-in-name-only’ approach to labeling a municipal bond and its bond acts is the most cost-effective, and impact investment-appropriate method choice for California policymakers. We provide evidence to support that this decision gives the highest return on both investment and return on impact for the State of California |
