Programmatic Certification

Programmatic Certification for Repeat Bond Issuers 

‘Programmatic Certification’ streamlines the Certification for Issuers who plan to issue multiple Certified bonds against a large pool of assets. Rather than going through the process of Certification for each bond issuance, the whole pool is Certified at the beginning, at the time of the first bond issuance. Subsequently, when the Issuer issues more bonds against other parts of the same asset pool, each bond only requires post-issuance verification. This method makes the process significantly simpler for the Issuer.

How Programmatic Certification Works

 

1. The Issuer identifies a large portfolio of eligible assets and projects, which are verified by the Verifier. The first bond in the programme is Certified for pre-issuance and post-issuance in the regular way. This ensures that the Issuer’s internal compliance framework is in place and that they have a large portfolio of eligible assets for future issuances.
   
    
2. When the Issuer would like to issue again under their programme, they must supply the Climate Bond Information Form and receive pre-issuance Certification from the Board for each new bond, but the Issuer does not need to involve the Verifier before the issuance. This step is generally very quick, ie a couple of days.
   
    
3. Annually, the issuer will engage the Verifier to conduct Post Issuance verification of its program that has been issued so far. So this annual verification may include several bonds together. If the issuer does not issue in the period of a year, then they do not need to do a verification for that year, but they would need to do the normal annual reporting.

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The Issuer will sign a slightly different Certification Agreement for Programmatic Certification.

The Issuer may at any time add or subtract from the pool of assets which was originally Certified, as long as the changes are conveyed to the Climate Bonds Secretariat beforehand. For the addition of certain assets, a quick verification of the new asset may be required. This depends on the Sector Criteria for the new asset.

 

Here is a step-by-step video on how individual and programmatic certifications work:

 

 

Green Issuers using Programmatic Certification Data as of 31 December 2020
ID.	Issuer	Sector	Country		Total USD million equivalent	Number of Issues
1	Société du Grand Paris (SGP)	Transport		France	17,983	12
2	New York Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA)	Transport		US	10,364	16
3	SNCF Réseau  / SNCF SA	Transport		France	7713	9
4	Sparebank 1 Boligkreditt	Buildings		Norway	3,261	3
5	DNB Boligkreditt AS	Buildings		Norway	2,879	2
6	Queensland Treasury Corp	Transport, Solar		Australia	2,826	3
7	National Australia Bank (NAB)	Multiple Sectors		Australia	2,800	4
8	San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)	Water		US	2,527	8
9	Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency (JRTT)	Transport		Japan	2,460	8
10	TCorp (New South Wales)	Transport, Water		Australia	2,230	2
11	Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART)	Transport		US	1,993	7
12	New York State Housing Finance Agency’s (HFA)	Buildings		US	1,950	19
13	de Volksbank	Buildings		Netherlands	1,478	3
14	Contact Energy Ltd.	Geothermal energy		New Zealand	1,475	multiple
15	Landesbank Baden Württemberg (LBBW)	Buildings		Germany	1,465	2
16	Westpac	Multiple Sectors		Australia	1,090	4
17	Russian Railways	Transport		Russia	849	2
18	State Bank of India	Solar		India	800	3
19	Goldman Sachs Renewable Power	Solar		US	500	1
20	Commonwealth Bank of Australia	Multiple Sectors		Australia	492	1
21	City and County of San Francisco	Transport		US	410	3
22	Akiem	Transport		France	398	1
23	Meridian Energy	Wind		New Zealand	341	3
24	Auckland Council	Transport		New Zealand	236	2
25	Mercury New Zealand	Wind, Geothermal		New Zealand	194	2
26	Volkswagen Immobilien	Buildings		Germany	193	2
27	PKO Bank Hipoteczny	Buildings		Poland	130	2
28	ING Bank Hipoteczny	Buildings		Poland	102	1
29	Tohoku Electric Power Co., Inc	Wind, Marine Renewable Energy (Offshore Wind), Geothermal		Japan	140	1
30	Connecticut Green Bank	Solar		US	55.4	2
31	Investa	Buildings		Australia	Confidential	-

 

Additional Resources:

1. Current Issuer Case Studies 
2. Frequently Asked Questions  
3. Introduction to Programmatic Certification PowerPoint
4. Green Issuers using Programmatic Certification table

 

 

CONTACT 

Please contact directly to find out more:

certification@climatebonds.net