ABA Corporate Member, Qatar National Bank (QNB), issued $ 600mn in Green Bonds during the second week of September. The bonds have a maturity of five years and are listed on the London Stock Exchange under its Sustainable Bond Market segment.
‘Green’ bonds is the term used for instruments that will be used to finance or re-finance environmentally friendly projects.
In February 2020, QNB established its Green, Social and Sustainability Bond Framework as part of a sustainability strategy launched in 2017 that is alligned with Qatar’s National Vision 2030.
The first Green Bonds to be launched in the GCC were issued by National Bank of Abu Dhabi in 2017. (The bank has since merged with First Gulf Bank to become First Abu Dhabi Bank.) The bank issued Dh 2.1bn ($587mn) in five year instruments.
Earlier this month the Saudi Electricity Company sold $1.3 mn in Green Sukuk. In May 2019, Dubai-based real estate firm Majid al-Futtaim issued the first tranche of its Green sukuk (the second followed in October 2019), and in November that year, the Islamic Development Bank issued $1 bn in Green sukuk to finance environmentally friendly projects in its member states.