The production of renewable energy is at the heart of solutions designed to combat climate change. Our Corporate & Investment Banking division is a major player in this field, notably in Europe and Latin America. The infrastructure financing teams raised funds for 19 new operations in 2020, representing an installed capacity of 6,510MW for an arranged total of €1.5 billion. In 2020, renewable energies accounted for 87% of the financing arranged by the CIB division in the power generation sector.
Issuers of green bonds undertake to use the funds raised to finance projects that have a positive impact on the environment, notably in the fight against climate change (energy efficiency, renewable energy, sustainable transport, etc.). In 2020, the CIB division arranged thirty-four green bond transactions for an arranged total of €15.9 billion, confirming the strength of its position in this market, particularly in Europe.
For the Kincardine project, the construction of a floating offshore wind farm south-east of Aberdeen in Scotland with an installed capacity of 50MW, Natixis acted as sole coordinator of the £380m green loan arranged to finance the initiative. Kincardine consists of six turbines installed on semi-submersible floating structures and will be the largest floating offshore wind farm in the world. Thanks to the certification process conducted by Natixis, the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) awarded the ‘Certified Climate Bond’ label to this financing arrangement.
In addition to green bond issues, Natixis has been providing since 2018 green or sustainable financing (green loans or sustainable loans) in two forms: loans earmarked for the financing of projects related to environmental protection and, more particularly, to climate impacts (in the form of term loans known as ‘green loans’) and syndicated loans backed by ESG criteria (in the form of ‘Revolving Credit Facilities,’ or Green RCF, known as ‘sustainability-linked loans’ or ‘ESG-linked loans’). Thirty-one transactions were completed in 2020.
In this capacity, Natixis supported Italo - NuovoTrasporto Viaggiatori, Italy’s leading private rail operator, with an innovative financing solution, representing the largest green loan (€1.1 billion) in the transportation sector so far, and the first to include sustainable development objectives in line with the ‘Sustainability Linked Loan Principles.’
Protecting our natural capital forms an integral part of the fight against global warming. Since 2017, Mirova has been running a platform specializing in investment for the conservation of biodiversity and natural capital in conjunction with its development of innovative investment solutions dedicated to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change, the protection of territories, biodiversity, soils and maritime resources, with €510 million dedicated to natural capital. The Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) fund is an example of the kind of innovative public private partnership needed to finance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Developed by the United Nations and Mirova, the fund invests in three key sectors: sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry and, depending on the opportunities, other projects such as green infrastructure and ecotourism.
The LDN fund’s mission is to be a source of transformative capital that brings together public and private investors to finance projects generating ‘triple bottom line’ returns (environmental, social, and financial) that help to promote neutrality in land degradation.
