The Climate Transition Bond Guidelines

The Climate Transition Bond Guidelines introduce an autonomous Climate Transition Bond (CTB) label within the scope of the Principles, conceived to help (re)finance projects critical for achieving the objectives of the Paris Agreement.

Specifically, they introduce:

• the use of the Climate Transition Bond (CTB) as an autonomous label for use-of-proceeds bonds;
• they provide guidance on the financing of credible climate transition projects ("CT Projects") with a definition and safeguards, as well as a preliminary and non-exhaustive list of CT Project categories in the Appendix;
• they build upon the existing guidelines of the Principles to formulate recommendations for transition-themed Sustainability-Linked Bonds (SLB) by high-emitting issuers;
• they include illustrative annexes to help issuers identify relevant official and market sector guidelines and taxonomies, decarbonization pathways and roadmaps, and resources for avoiding carbon lock-in.

The essential point of these new guidelines resides in the definition of Climate Transition (CT) Projects which, unlike "Green" projects that often concern already low-emission technologies, can include activities in high-carbon intensity contexts, provided they are directed toward the...