The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) launched its "first-of-a-kind" Green Bond Transparency Platform in April 2021, with the aim of simplifying issuers' reporting on green bonds and facilitating investor analysis of the bonds.

This would ultimately promote more issuance of green bonds, it said.

The platform hosts impact reports uploaded by issuers of green bonds based in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as pre- and post-issuance external reviews. IDB said the platform structure could theoretically be replicated for use in other regions including Asia, Europe and the US.

Environmental Finance Bond Awards judges commended the platform for promoting comparability in impact reporting from multiple issuers and praised it for a focus on emerging markets countries. One judge hailed as "great" the quality of data hosted on the platform.

The free-to-view platform enables users to view information in Excel spreadsheets as one of the functions designed to promote ease-of-use, it added.

The IDB said the online platform has in its first year drawn about 50,000 visits. It covers a total of about 70% of market volume for labelled issuance in the Latin America and Caribbean region, IDB said.

Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of the IDB, told Environmental Finance: “Climate change action is a critical pillar of Vision 2025, our blueprint for powering sustainable development in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are committed to mobilizing private sector investment to address climate-change and usher in a net zero carbon emissions future. This platform is a big step toward achieving that goal and it can be replicated in other regions."

Susana Cordeiro Guerra, manager of the IDB’s Institutions for Development Department, said: “The platform closes important information gaps in this market by promoting the standardisation and harmonisation of green bonds reporting on the final use of resources and their environmental impacts. That increases investor confidence that proceeds are being used to fund high-quality green projects.”