1 billion euros: NRW.BANK places first Green Bond in 2023

NRW.BANK successfully placed its first Green Bond in the capi­tal market in 2023. The deve­lo­p­ment bank’s 14th green bond had a volume of one billion euros and was twice over­sub­scri­bed. With the current Green Bond, NRW.BANK is refi­nan­cing in parti­cu­lar those projects in North Rhine-West­­pha­­lia that help to miti­gate climate change and adapt to its consequences.

“The climate-neutral trans­for­ma­tion of the economy and society is an enorm­ous chall­enge. To master it, capi­tal flows must flow into sustainable projects,” says Michael Stöl­ting, member of NRW.BANK’s Mana­ging Board. “This is precis­ely where we come in with our Green Bonds, enab­ling inves­tors to parti­ci­pate in sustainable projects in North Rhine-Westphalia.”

The current Green Bond will focus on promo­ting the expan­sion of rene­wa­ble ener­gies. More than 450 million euros alone will be used to finance wind farms and photo­vol­taic systems. Just under 200 million each will go toward energy-effi­ci­ent buil­dings and the expan­sion of climate-friendly trans­por­ta­tion, inclu­ding e‑cars, street­cars, trains and battery trol­ley­bu­ses. 200 million has been earmarked for the rena­tu­ra­tion of the Emscher and Lippe rivers. This brings the total volume of funds commit­ted by NRW.BANK for the ecolo­gi­cal rene­wal of rivers to EUR 3.8 billion. Further funds are earmarked for the expan­sion of the fiber-optic broad­band network.

The effec­ti­ve­ness of the invest­ments is also shown by the analy­sis of the Wupper­tal Insti­tute for Climate, Envi­ron­ment and Energy, which was recently published for the two NRW.BANK.Green Bonds from 2021. Accor­din­gly, the calcu­la­ti­ons showed that the refi­nan­ced projects from the NRW.BANK.Green Bonds 2021 will save green­house gases amoun­ting to around 4.2 million tons of CO2 equi­va­lents over the ten-year term of the bond.

With the 14th Green Bond now issued, the total volume of NRW.BANK.Green Bonds issued rises to a total of eight billion euros. Lead mana­gers were Barclays, Crédit Agri­cole CIB, Deka­Bank and Deut­sche Bank. The company is listed in Düssel­dorf and in Luxem­bourg under ISIN: DE000NWB0AU2. The mini­mum deno­mi­na­tion is 1,000 euros.

With sustaina­bi­lity prin­ci­ples in mind, NRW.BANK has been issuing its own Green Bonds since 2013 and Social Bonds since 2020. It also invests in a sepa­rate Sustainable Invest­ment Port­fo­lio to supple­ment its invest­ment port­fo­lio with desi­gna­ted sustainable invest­ments. With a green refi­nan­cing curve, it offers funding reci­pi­ents the oppor­tu­nity to finance projects that are in line with the EU taxo­nomy for sustainable invest­ments at parti­cu­larly favorable condi­ti­ons. This green curve is laid down in NRW.BANK’s sustaina­bi­lity guide­lines. The same applies to the orien­ta­tion of the capi­tal market busi­ness, which is based on the prin­ci­ples of the Prin­ci­ples for Respon­si­ble Invest­ment (PRI), which NRW.BANK signed in Decem­ber 2020. This member­ship is a further contri­bu­tion to the holi­stic sustainable orien­ta­tion of the bank’s capi­tal market business.

The current issu­ance docu­ments for NRW.BANK’s funding programs can be found at nrwbank.de/investor-relations.