Four of China’s five biggest state-owned electricity utilities are capitalizing on the country’s red-hot “carbon-neutral bond” market, raising up to $1.38 billion in recent weeks as they race to develop renewables facilities under an ambitious national carbon-emission drive, reported Caixin.
China Huadian Corp. issued a RMB 1.5 billion ($230.69 million) carbon-neutral green bond on Friday, joining three peers that did so in late February — China Energy Investment, State Power Investment and China Huaneng Group — to borrow heavily by tapping a new type of green bond given the go-ahead last month with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Together, the four power giants borrowed a total of RMB 9 billion from bonds with two-to three-year maturities, and they pledged to spend at least 70% of the proceeds to develop renewables, without identifying specific projects, said Caixin.
Similarly, hydropower conglomerate China Three Gorges Corp. raised RMB 1 billion through the same type of bond on Friday, according to a filing with the Shanghai Stock Exchange.