Name: The sustainable finance feeding a growing food system | FT Food Revolution
Uploaded: 2021-11-18T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 2 min 41 s
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From a green shoot in 2007 to a forest of funding today, the growth of sustainable finance has been unstoppable.

Global ESG assets could exceed 53 trillion US dollars by 2025.

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This means that food producers and manufacturers have more opportunities to help feed a growing global population efficiently and sustainably.

Sustainable financing is really booming within the F&A (food and agriculture) space.

Currently, we're almost at 20 percent of all loans issued within the space having a sustainability-linked element, showcasing it as a great tool to help support global food systems.

But what products are available and how do they work?

There are two main types of sustainable financing: use of proceeds debt and sustainability-linked debt.

Green bonds raise money for projects or assets that have a positive impact on the environment.

Social bonds are like green bonds, except they're designed to fund causes that have a positive impact on society, such as access to education, food or healthcare.

Sustainability bonds combine the benefits of green and social bonds.

Green or social loans are financed by banks and taken out by companies to fund a specific green or social project or asset.

Unlike green bonds and loans, sustainability-linked debt comes with no restrictions on how the proceeds can be used.

In sustainability-linked finance, borrowers commit themselves to predefined environmental or social key performance indicators, so-called KPIs.

A great example of this is organic supermarket chain Ekoplaza, who committed to reducing and monitoring their food waste across all their stores.

If they hit their KPIs, their annual interest rate will go down; if they miss their KPIs their annual interest rate will go up.

Currently, sustainability-linked bonds or loans represent a fraction of all sustainable financing debt in the market,

but analysts predict issuance will jump from $10 billion in 2020, to as much as $60 billion in 2021.

Sustainable finance is clearly a burgeoning market.

But investors will only buy into it if they're confident the money they lend will be used to better the planet and the people living on it.

The industry uses several principles that set out best practices for each type of product.

For agricultural and food industries, these new financial models offer an opportunity to build a more sustainable business that is fit for future global demand.