From today, July 1, 2021, the Law of Ukraine "On Capital Markets and Organized Commodity Markets" as amended by the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning the Simplification of Attraction of Investments and the Introduction of New Financial Instruments" No. 738-IX dated June 19, 2020. The law introduces green bonds as a separate subtype of securities and establishes the rules for the participants in the relevant market.
In particular, Art. 11, 18 of the Law is established:
- the concept of green bonds and environmental projects (with the definition of specific areas to which funds raised from the issue of such bonds can be directed);
- a circle of green bond issuers (with the definition of a legal regime for those who implement and /or finance environmental projects);
- principles of information disclosure by issuers, reporting procedures and use of proceeds that will be attracted from investors to finance and /or refinance the costs of environmental projects.
The relevant legal provisions were developed by the State Energy Efficiency Agency of Ukraine with the support of the GIZ project "Consulting Enterprises on Energy Efficiency" and were agreed with other stakeholders during the meetings of the Interdepartmental Working Group on the Implementation of the Green Bond Market.
From today, corporate issuers, and these are legal entities of private law (enterprises, corporations, banks, other financial institutions) and international financial institutions, have the right to issue green bonds and thus raise funds for the implementation /financing of alternative energy, energy efficiency projects , other projects of ecological follow-up, defined by Art. 11, 18 Law.
For public issuers (and this is the state of Ukraine represented by authorized bodies, a specialized financial institution, created by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine or another specially authorized body, local government bodies), the issue of green bonds will become possible after the Government adopts the Procedure for the selection and support of environmental projects financed from the state and local budgets ", which is provided for in paragraph 2 of Art. 18. Law. This draft resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has already been developed by the Ministry of Ecology and discussed at a meeting of the Interdepartmental Working Group created by the State Energy Efficiency Agency. Now the State Energy Efficiency together with experts of the GIZ project "Consulting enterprises on energy efficiency" are supporting the Ministry of Environment in finalizing the draft act of international standards.
You can get advice on the procedures for issuing green bonds and clarification of legislative norms from Andrey Yuryevich Frolov - Head of the Department of Incentive Instruments of the State Agency for Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine, tel. /fax: (044) 590-59-71, a.frolov @ saee.gov.ua.
