RIYADH: Assets allocated to the Arab Petroleum Investment Corp.’s debut green bond reached $335 million as of Oct.31, 2022, according to the financial institution’s latest green bond report for the last year.
It noted that APICORP’s total portfolio of environmentally linked assets financed in 2022 as of Oct.31 reached $664 million, which makes up 13 percent of the total loan portfolio compared to 3 percent in 2016.
The latest report follows the global best practices to measure the impact of APICORP’s debut $750 million green bond issuance in October 2021, which has been allocated to 10 projects in five countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and Spain, according to a statement.
The remaining $415 million from the unallocated green bond proceeds was invested into other green assets including securities and funds which comply with the green bond framework.
According to APICORP, the financed projects collectively generate 9.4 terawatt-hours of clean energy for nearly 1 million homes and help reduce annual emissions of 20 million tons of carbon dioxide.
“APICORP follows a rigorous review process for any transaction identified as eligible for green financing under our Green Bond Framework,” said Yasser Gado, treasurer and chairman of the Green Bond Committee at APICORP.
He added: “Through our due diligence process, deployment of proceeds has been challenging given the economic conditions that impact manufacturing and supply chain, but we expect conditions to improve and we can finance high-quality clean energy projects with the remaining proceeds.”
The global green bond market has been gaining traction in the past decade and is projected to surpass $5 trillion by 2025, driven by increasing demand for sustainable investment options and a growing awareness of the need to address climate change challenges
Established in 1975 by 10 Arab oil-exporting countries, APICORP is an energy-focused multilateral financial institution, which works to support the sustainable development of the region’s energy sector and related industries through a range of financing and direct equity solutions, as well as energy research and advisory services.
