An Environmental Performance Based Assessment Framework to Support the China Green Bond Market

The design of this framework consists of four key elements: align with expectations of key stakeholders such as the investor community, and China’s bond market regulators and green finance think tanks; prevent greenwashing in environmental performance assessment; review common practices of environmental performance assessment in the market; identify areas of connection between the green bond assessment framework and environmental regulations in China.

The framework will also keep track of the achievement of the expected environmental benefits of projects financed by the bond, and the implementation of impact mitigation measures as proposed in the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment prior to bond issuance. This mechanism will cover the pre- and post-issuance stages, and may even be extended to operational stage of the project, depending on the maturity of the bond.