Ahren Lester

Articles by Ahren Lester

  • Singapore considers ground-breaking foreign currency green bond

    08 November 2022

    Singapore will consider issuing its first ever foreign currency sovereign bond in green bond format amid interest from investors, but only after building out its Singaporean dollar green bond curve.

  • COP27: ISSB hails 'milestone' CDP, NZDPU tie-ups

    08 November 2022

    The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) hailed "key milestone" agreements with the CDP and Net Zero Data Public Utility (NZDPU) it said will boost implementation of its standards.

  • AI data providers 'not there yet' for sustainable bond data solutions

    07 November 2022

    The technology behind artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) is not currently capable of providing investors with the tools they need to "meaningfully and quickly" extract data...

  • SGX developing sustainable bond listing initiative

    07 November 2022

    The Singapore Exchange (SGX) has exclusively announced at an Environmental Finance event that it plans to launch a sustainable bond initiative to provide "added assurance" for investors around reporting and greater visibility for issuers.

  • Munis must 'upstream' ESG data to join sustainable bond growth

    28 October 2022
  • Loan round-up: Trafigura, Greif, GlobalConnect, Fibra Uno, TenneT ... and more

    27 October 2022
  • World Bank warns of SLB greenwashing risk from 'structural loopholes'

    25 October 2022

    The World Bank encouraged the market to consider expanding the role of external reviewers for sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) to cover their structure, after research identified "structural loopholes" which pose a greenwashing risk for the market.

  • UK regulator warns financials they face climate risk supervisory escalation

    24 October 2022

    Banks and insurers have been warned by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) they face an escalation in supervisory pressure if they fail to address climate-related financial risk appropriately.

  • Austria offers green short-dated debt 'missing link'

    24 October 2022

    After its ground-breaking green T-Bill issuance, Austria has further plans to tackle the short-term debt challenge in green markets. Ahren Lester reports

  • Honesty on transition challenges, failures is 'antithesis' of greenwashing

    24 October 2022

    Being honest around what has led to failures to achieve transition targets is the "antithesis of greenwashing" but remains relatively uncommon among corporates at present, according to Impax Asset Management (AM).