Exclusive: Less than 1% of green bond proceeds used for green projects

Corporate greenwashing, investor demand for yields hampering real progress.

(Editor’s note: This column originally appeared on Callaway Climate Insights on May 15, 2024. A more recent version, published Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, reflects updates to the original research. Please see the updated post here.)

(Mark Hulbert, an author and longtime investment columnist, is the founder of the Hulbert Financial Digest; his Hulbert Ratings audits investment newsletter returns.)

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (Callaway Climate Insights) — A new study finds that green bonds have done virtually nothing to make the world greener.

The study, titled “Green Bonds: New Name, Same Projects,” was conducted by Pauline Lam, a visiting scholar at NYU’s Stern School of Business, and Jeffrey Wurgler, a finance professor at that institution. Their research is being presented this coming Friday (May 17) at a University of Chicago conference.

The researchers’ conclusion is profoundly depressing because green bonds originally held such promise.