China’s First Green Bond Raises $300M for Wind
China’s first green bond has raised $300 million after pricing last week for Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology, a manufacturer of wind turbine generators.
“We see activity around green bonds in a number of different places, but signals out of China are very strong,” New York-based Manuel Lewin, head of responsible investment for Zurich Insurance Group, tells Reuters.
The Xinjiang Goldwind issuance is the first green bond from a Chinese issuer, according to Reuters.
China’s Green Buildings Present Opportunities for Western Firms
The amount of green building space in China has skyrocketed in the last seven years, which is translating into business opportnities for Western firms, TheStreet reports. As of April, the country had 320 million square meters (3.4 billion square feet) of green building space, more than 154 times the amount in 2008 when China launched its green initiative began, according to real estate-services firm CBRE China.
The capital Beijing, financial hub Shanghai and the cities of Shenzhen and Wuhan rank among the world’s top 10 green building centers as the industry “has stepped onto a fast track towards large-scale development,” CBRE says.
Beijing and Shanghai each have nearly 20 million square of green building space, making them the cities with the most green space, according to China Daily. The CBRE report estimates that green building space makes up only 1 percent of China’s total existing building space. That figure will jump to about 10 percent by 2020, China Daily reports.
Among the companies that are seeing new business in China, according to TheStreet, are Honeywell, which sells thermostats and energy management systems, and Siemens, which develops green building technologies.