Building a World Top Green and Sustainable Bond Hub

Non-sustainable bond issuance Sustainable bond issuance 11.8% 88.2% Most Popular in 2018-2023 Most Popular in 2016-2017 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 0% Luxembourg Hong Kong and Singapore 40% 70% 15 Building a World Top Green and Sustainable Bond Hub International Sustainable Bond Issuance from Asian Issuers Figure 8: Most Popular Locations for International Sustainable Bond Issuance from Asian Issuers in 2016-2017 and 2018-2023 (Source: By the research team based on data from the ICMA) Over the recent decades, the international sustainable bond market has experienced significant growth. The issuance volume of sustainable bonds took up 11.8% of the international bonds market in 2023 (Figure 9). Despite challenges such as interest rate hikes, geopolitical tensions, and sectoral credit events, Asian sustainable bonds have also experienced exponential growth with the steady entry of new issuers and a diverse investor base. In this part of sustainable bonds, issuance from Asian issuers reached 12.9%. International issuance of sustainable bonds from Asian issuers grew to almost 100 billion US dollars in 2021 and then stabilized at about 80 billion US dollars in 2022 and 2023. Sustainable bonds from Asian issuers maintained a level of over one fifth of the whole international market (Figure 10). Global International Bond Issuance Figure 9: Proportion of Sustainable Bonds in the International Bonds Market (Source: By the research team based on data from the ICMA)