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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.

  • 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 financinguse of proceeds debt and sustainability-linked debt.

  • Use of proceeds debt financing varies.

  • 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 loanssustainability-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 indicatorsso-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.

From a green shoot in 2007 to a forest of funding today, the growth of sustainable finance has been unstoppable.

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