NRW.BANK places first Green Bond in 2022 -500 million euros for climate and environmental protection

NRW.BANK has successfully placed its first 500-million-euro Green Bond of the year 2022 with investors. The promotional bank for North Rhine-Westphalia will use its twelfth Green Bond to again refinance environmentally friendly projects in the federal state. The focus will be placed, inter alia, on climate-friendly public transport vehicles, the expansion of the broadband network in NRW and wind power plants. Since 2013, the promotional bank has used the NRW.BANK.Green Bond to refinance the renaturation of the Emscher and Lippe rivers. This also includes the expansion of flood retention basins along the Emscher which prevented major flooding in the Emscher area after last July’s heavy rainfalls.

“Our new Green Bond again met with great interest among investors,” says Eckhard Forst, Chairman of NRW.BANK’s Managing Board. “This way, we not only satisfy the steadily growing demand for green bonds but also support projects that promote environmental and social sustainability in North Rhine-Westphalia.”

The latest NRW.BANK.Green Bond will be used not only for river renaturation but also to refinance climate-friendly public transport vehicles, the expansion of the fibre-optic broadband network in NRW, energy-efficient building refurbishment and renewable energy such as wind energy and photovoltaics. Roughly 54 million euros will be spent on refinancing climate-friendly trams for North Rhine-Westphalian cities, while just under 13 million euros will be used to refinance the expansion of the broadband network in NRW. Almost 91 million euros will be spent on refinancing wind parks.

The effectiveness of these investments is not least confirmed by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, whose analysis was last published for the 2020 NRW.BANK.Green Bond. According to these calculations, the projects refinanced under the 2020 NRW.BANK.Green Bond will save greenhouse gases amounting to around 1.1 million tons of CO₂ equivalents over the ten-year term of the bond. Measured against the volume of the 500-million-euro Green Bond analysed, the annual greenhouse gas savings amount to around 220 tons of CO₂ equivalents per 1 million euros.

The majority of the investors in the latest bond come from Germany and the Benelux countries. Over 80 percent of the investors in the bond have a special focus on sustainability. The issue was lead-managed by Dekabank and Unicredit. The bond is listed in Düsseldorf and on the Green Exchange of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange under ISIN: DE000NWB0AQ0. The minimum denomination is 1,000 euros.

With sustainability principles in mind, NRW.BANK has issued its own Green Bonds since 2013 and started issuing Social Bonds in 2020. In addition, the Bank invests in a separate Sustainable Investment Portfolio to supplement its capital investment portfolio with proven sustainable investments. The Bank’s green funding curve offers funding recipients the opportunity to finance projects that are in line with the EU taxonomy for sustainable investments at particularly favourable conditions. This green curve is laid down in NRW.BANK’s Sustainability Guidelines. The same applies to the focus of the capital market business, which is based on the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), which NRW.BANK signed in December 2020. The PRI membership is a further contribution to the integrated sustainable orientation of the Bank’s capital market business.

For more information on the NRW.BANK.Green Bond, visit https://www.nrwbank.de/en/about-us/investor-relations/green-bonds/. To learn more about sustainability at NRW.BANK, see https://www.nrwbank.de/en/about-us/sustainability/. 

About NRW.BANK

NRW.BANK is the promotional bank of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Its mission is to support its owner – the state of North Rhine-Westphalia – in the completion of its structural and economic policy tasks. In its three promotional fields “Economy”, “Housing” and “Infrastructure/Municipalities”, NRW.BANK uses a wide range of promotion tools – from low-interest promotion loans to equity financing to advisory services. It cooperates with all banks and savings banks based in NRW on a competition-neutral basis. NRW.BANK takes into account the existing offers by the Federal Government, the North Rhine-Westphalian government and the European Union in the arrangement of its promotion.

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Contact
Caroline Gesatzki
Press Officer
Tel.: + 49 211 91741-1847
Mobile: + 49 151 15179261
caroline.gesatzki@nrwbank.de