Moscow shares its experience in issuing green bonds with Tajikistan
Moscow continues to replicate successful sustainable development practices: experts from the City's Economic Policy Complex and the Moscow Department of Finance shared their experience in implementing green finance projects during a working meeting with representatives of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Tajikistan. Zoya Viktorova, Deputy Head of the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the City of Moscow, spoke about the work on the placement of green bonds in Moscow.
"Moscow became the first region of Russia to issue sub—federal green bonds: in 2021, an exchange-traded issue of 70 billion rubles, and in 2023— an issue of bonds for the population of 2 billion rubles. Both issues comply with national and international standards of green finance. To issue green bonds, the Moscow Government initiated and carried out a lot of work together with the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Russia, the Moscow Stock Exchange, and the state corporation VEB.Russian Federation” and market participants on the formation of public green financing infrastructure. The result of this work was not only the appearance of the country's first issue of regional green bonds, but also an important transformation of the green finance market as a whole: regional and municipal bonds gained access to the sustainable development sector of the Moscow Stock Exchange," commented Zoya Viktorova.
Funds from the issue of green bonds were allocated to transport projects that reduce emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases from vehicles. Thus, funds received from the placement of two issues of green bonds were used to finance the construction and reconstruction of 48 km of tracks and 21 stations of the Bolshaya Koltsevaya Metro Line and 451 electric buses for urban public transport were purchased.
According to the Deputy head of the Department, the importance of the work done is evidenced by the high demand for Moscow securities: the exchange-traded issue of Moscow green bonds was placed at a rate lower than that of other first-class issuers, and green bonds for the population were sold in just five weeks instead of the planned period of six months, residents of 73 regions of the country became investors. At the moment, the 2021 issue continues to be traded on the stock exchange, and the 2023 issue was fully redeemed at the end of May.
Representatives of the Moscow City Finance Department noted that green bonds for the population allowed not only to raise funds for the implementation of urban environmental projects, but also helped citizens learn more about ways to preserve and increase savings. The city offered a convenient and practically risk-free investment tool, accessible even to those who had no experience investing in securities.
The use of a modern technology platform has made the process of buying and selling securities as simple as possible. All transactions with green bonds for the population were carried out directly — online without intermediaries and commissions.
"Moscow's issuance of green bonds is a unique project, which is why we regularly receive requests for the exchange of experience from our colleagues from other regions of Russia and abroad. We always cooperate and are ready to share our experience in implementing this and other Moscow projects," Zoya Viktorova noted.
Moscow's green bond projects have been highly appreciated by the Russian and international expert communities. At the end of last year, Moscow's green bonds were among the 25 most successful global cases selected by UN-Habitat as the world's best urban practices in combating climate change. In addition, the project of issuing exchange-traded green bonds was among the winners of the international climate competition "Green Eurasia" in the nomination "Green Financing", and the issue of green bonds for the population was recognized as the best Russian innovation practice in the field of economic development in the first All-Russian Management Innovation Competition.
