14-05-2019 – Green bonds are used to finance business-as-usual tree plantations and operations of the paper & pulp industry and claiming exaggerated CO2 savings, a new briefing by the Environmental Paper Network (EPN) shows. The briefing presents a case study of a Green Bond issued by the Brazilian pulp & paper giant Fibria, even if the company has not engaged in any kind of environmental reorientation of its business activities. Instead, its Green Bond was used to finance expansions of monoculture industrial tree plantations.
The briefing argues that bonds for industrial tree plantations should not be eligible for a “green” label, as these do not provide additional ecological nor financial benefits. In addition to the negative ecological impacts such as reduction of water availability and pollution by pesticides and fertilizers, plantations have also caused numerous social and land conflicts with traditional communities in Brazil. In order to be beneficial for the climate, tree plantations should maintain and increase the amount of carbon stored in them over time, rather than have the trees quickly harvested and used for short lived products.
Fibria launched a Bond of USD 700 million in 2017 which according to the research by EPN has been mostly used to plant eucalyptus plantations and to purchase certified wood for its pulp mills. To a large extent these purchases are part of the everyday business of Fibria.
Green Bonds are supposed to be bonds earmarked for the financing of climate and environmental projects. Issuers of bonds like Fibria usually label bonds ‘green’ themselves, sometimes backed by different kinds of voluntary standards. However, the generally weak criteria of these standards and the poor disclosure requirements allow many business-as-usual projects to be labelled as “green”.
“The example of bonds by Fibria to finance business-as-usual industrial plantations raises the question of whether these self-labelled bonds and weak standards can credibly guarantee that money invested in these bonds will have a positive impact on the environmental and the climate”, said Merel van der Mark, coordinator of pulp finance work at the Environmental Paper Network.
“Green Bonds are an excellent opportunity to put together the growing demand for ethical investment for the huge environmental challenges the world is facing. They can attract resources otherwise unavailable and finance the implementation of projects that contribute to a better environment and climate. But this can only work if the green bonds can provide additional benefits, both financially and ecologically”, said Wolfgang Kuhlmann, the author of the briefing.
Contacts:
Wolfgang Kuhlmann, wolfgang.kuhlmann@araonline.de, +49 175 6040772
Merel van der Mark, merel@environmentalpaper.org, +316 1300 0656
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以下中文由Google自动翻译，仅供参考
绿色债券被用于资助破坏性的工业林种植
14-05-2019 – 环保纸业网（EPN）的新简报显示，绿色债券用于为纸张和纸浆行业的常规树木种植和运营提供资金，并声称夸大了二氧化碳减排量。该简报介绍了巴西制浆造纸巨头Fibria发行的绿色债券案例研究，即使该公司未对其业务活动进行任何环境重新定位。相反，它的绿色债券被用来资助单一种植工业树种植园的扩张。
该简报认为，工业人工林的债券不应该有资格获得“绿色”标签，因为这些标签不提供额外的生态或经济利益。除了减少水资源供应和农药和化肥污染等负面生态影响外，种植园还与巴西的传统社区造成了许多社会和土地冲突。为了有利于气候，树木种植园应该保持和增加其中储存的碳量，而不是快速收获树木并用于短寿命产品。
根据EPN的研究，Fibria在2017年推出了7亿美元的债券，主要用于种植桉树种植园，并为其纸浆厂购买认证木材。这些购买在很大程度上是Fibria日常业务的一部分。
绿色债券应该是专门用于资助气候和环境项目的债券。像Fibria这样的债券发行人通常会将债券本身标记为“绿色”，有时候会受到不同类型的自愿性标准的支持。然而，这些标准普遍较弱的标准和不良的披露要求允许许多一切照旧的项目被标记为“绿色”。
“Fibria债券为常规工业种植园提供融资的例子提出了这样一个问题：这些自我标记债券和弱标准是否可以可靠地保证投资于这些债券的资金将对环境和气候产生积极影响”环境纸业网络纸浆金融工作协调员Merel van der Mark说。
“绿色债券是一个绝佳的机会，可以应对不断增长的道德投资需求，以应对全球面临的巨大环境挑战。它们可以吸引其他方面无法获得的资源，并为实施有助于改善环境和气候的项目提供资金。但这只能在绿色债券能够在经济和生态方面提供额外收益时才有效“，该简报的作者沃尔夫冈库尔曼说。
联系方式：
Wolfgang Kuhlmann，wolfgang.kuhlmann@aaraonline.de，+ 49 175 6040772
Merel van der Mark，merel@enonalalpaper.org，+ 316 1300 0656
