CA Green Bond Market Development Committee

The Goldman School of Public Policy is partnering with the California State Treasurer to establish a California Green Bond Market Development Committee. The purpose of this committee is to expand financing for climate-friendly infrastructure through green bonds.

The Committee will promote and expand the green bond market in California, connect the need for infrastructure improvement to green bond efforts, and exchange information on best practices with industry representatives and green bond organizations in other states and nations.

After a two-year effort, the California Treasurer’s Office has published a report and convened a conference on the need to expand financing for climate-friendly infrastructure through green bonds.

Building off of this work and with support from the Hewlett Foundation, the Goldman School’s Center for Environmental Public Policy partnered with the Office of the California State Treasurer to convene the inaugural Green Bond Market Development Committee Meeting. Held on June 4th, 2019 at the University of California, Berkeley, the meeting brought together 27 stakeholders working to promote and expand the green bond market in California.

The CA Green Bond Market Development Committee is chaired by the California State Treasurer, with the Goldman School’s Center for Environmental Public Policy serving as Secretariat . The Committee will meet four times per year and assess opportunities to develop the green bond market in California.

The California Green Bond Market Development Committee consists of 27 academics, engineers, investors, public policy experts, attorneys, and climate scientists from:

  • UC Berkeley Goldman School
  • The California State Treasurer’s Office
  • Climate Bonds Initiative
  • NV5
  • KPMG
  • Kestrel Verifiers
  • Neighborly
  • California State Teachers’ Retirement System
  • Standard & Poors (S&P)
  • San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
  • Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
  • Ceres
  • Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
  • California Statewide Communities Development Authority
  • Stradling, Yocca, Carlson & Rauth
  • Stifel
  • Revalue
  • Governor’s Office of Planning and Research
  • Goldman Sachs
  • Natural Resources Defense Council
  • UBS
  • Scripps Institute of Oceanography

The California Green Bond Development Committee will work to increase participation by issuers and investors in green bond markets. The actions the Committee may promote include:

a)  Develop an educational and outreach effort focused on municipal and local government bond issuers and local/regional utilities.

b)  Establish training and advisory programs for local government leaders on benefits of green bonding relative to conventional financing and to advise on low‐cost verification and reporting mechanisms.

c) Develop an outreach effort aimed at investors and those who influence investment decisions.

d)  Manage conferences that bring issuers, investors, state agencies and local government into a regular conversation about how to expand investment in green bonds for climate‐friendly infrastructure.

e)  Manage smaller meetings among local treasurers, financial managers, facility managers and investors.

f)  Develop educational initiatives and certificate programs related to municipal green finance at the University of California.  

 

Treasurer’s Green Bond Symposium 2018, Financing America’s Fight Against Climate Change, February 27-28, 2018, Milken Institute, Santa Monica CA, http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/greenbonds/index.asp.1

John Chiang, California State Treasurer, Growing the US Green Bond Market, Volume I, The Barriers and Challenges, available at, http://treasurer.ca.gov/greenbonds/publications/reports/1.pdf. See also, treasurer.ca.gov/greenbonds2

John Chiang, California State Treasurer, Growing the US Green Bond Market, Volume 2, Actionable Strategies and Solutions, available at https://www.milkeninstitute.org/sites/default/files/reports-pdf/Growing-the-US-Green-Bond-Mkt-Vol2.pdf3