Social and sustainability bond issuance volumes have soared in 2020, representing around half of the green, social and sustainability bond market.
The health and economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic explains part of this growth, but it is not the only factor.
In a panel at Environmental Finance's ESG in Fixed Income Europe 2020 virtual conference issuance trends and potential for future growth was discussed.
The audience heard from BNG, which has two sustainable bond programmes in place and has been a regular issuer of both bonds in various currencies for many years. In addition, and Miia Palviainen, MuniFin's funding officer, talked about MuniFin's recent inaugural social bond and the potential for social bonds in enhancing the welfare state of Finland.
A clip of the panel can be viewed below. The full panel discussion and the other discussions from the event are still available to view on the events platform.
Moderator: Stéphane Marciel, Head of Sustainable Bonds, Société Générale
Panellists: Felipe Gordillo, Senior ESG Analyst, BNPP AM
Miia Palviainen, Funding Officer, MuniFin
Sami Gotrane, Head of Treasury & Financial Markets, SFIL/CAFFIL
Willem Littel, Senior Manager International Capital Markets, BNG