APEC businesses propose new climate bonds, carbon credit network
By Leika Kihara
TOKYO, Aug 5 (Reuters) -Asia-Pacific business executives urged emerging economies in the region to issue climate bonds indexed to a basket of currencies, which would reduce the risk from foreign exchange fluctuation in raising funds for clean energy transition.
The group of business executives comprising ABAC, which is APEC's Business Advisory Council, also proposed on Sunday launching a pilot programme to develop a voluntary carbon market (VCM) for the Asia-Pacific region.
"What we're trying to establish is an interoperable, or mutually tradeable, voluntary carbon credit network within the Asia-Pacific region that can accelerate the region's transition to a low-carbon society," Hiroshi Nakaso, head of ABAC's finance and investment task force, told a news conference on Sunday.
Under the programme, like-minded countries will conduct cross-border carbon credit transactions on a trial basis to identify problems and possible solutions, Nakaso said.
The Asia-Pacific region lacks cross-border standards or regulatory infrastructure for a voluntary carbon market, a mechanism that channels private financing into climate projects.
The proposals, compiled at a meeting in Tokyo on Aug. 1-4, underscore a growing awareness in Asia about the need for private and public sectors to cooperate in financing the huge cost of energy transition.
ABAC, an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) advisory council, will present its recommendations at the APEC leaders' summit to be held in Lima in November. Peru is this year's chair of APEC, a bloc that accounts for almost half of world trade.
In the list of proposals, ABAC called on governments in the region to issue 10-year bonds with interest and principal payments indexed to a basket of currencies.
Such bonds would give developing nations access to hard currency to buy solar farms and storage facilities, and mitigate risk from exchange-rate fluctuation for lenders, said Tom Harley, one of the task force's project leaders from Australia.
Asia is among the world's most vulnerable regions to climate-related natural disasters. It also consists of many economies reliant on fossil fuel or vulnerable to currency market swings, heightening challenges for energy transition.
Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Christopher Cushing
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