Second Party Opinion

Corporations

Sustainability: The new economic paradigm

The need to rapidly reduce GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions sets the path for a decarbonized and circular economy. Recent regulations, standards and protocols give the financial sector a central role in the fight against climate change and in the energy transition. These include the European Union (EU) Taxonomy to define a common sustainability narrative for investors, ICMA Green Bond Principles or Climate Bonds Initiative Standards.
SERFIEX ESG Services

Scope

As an external reviewer, SERFIEX provides an independent opinion (“Second Party Opinion” or “SPO”) of the alignment of a bond with the Green Bond Principles (GBPs) of ICMA (International Capital Market Association).

The issuance is evaluated in accordance with the four pillars of the GBPs:

  • Use of Proceeds
  • Process for Project Evaluation and Selection
  • Management of Proceeds
  • Reporting

Issuance aligned to the GBPs provides an investment opportunity with transparent green credentials. The GBPs promote a step change in transparency that facilitates the tracking of funds into environmental projects.

SERFIEX Sostainable Finance
SERFIEX SPO BIOARAG

Methodology

Our opinion is built on the review of the following elements:

  • Issuance: we assessed the alignment between the Bond and the Issuer’s environmental objectives, the Issuer’s Green Bond Framework, the Bond’s potential contribution to global and regional environmental policies and its alignment with the four core components of the GBPs.
  • Issuer: we assessed the Issuer’s ESG performance, its management of potential stakeholder related ESG controversies and its involvement in controversial activities.

We shape our opinion based on data harvested from multiple sources: public sources, press content providers, stake-holders’ interviews, including company staff and managers, visits to the project sites and more.

SERFIEX provides Second Party Opinions on the alignment of bond programmes with ICMA’s Green Bond Principles across a broad range of sectors, including finance, industry, renewable energy and infrastructure.

Clients whose bond programmes we have assessed for such alignment include:

Why SERFIEX?

SERFIEX provides sustainability impact measurement services for investment vehicles. These services are aligned with the new requirements of EU supervisory authorities on the disclosure and measurement of sustainability risk on the financial industry.

Due to the appetite of our clients for green and social bonds, SERFIEX has included in its offer new Independent Opinion services on the alignment of these projects with ICMA Green, Social and Sustainable Bond Principles.

A team of sustainability specialists with more than 30 years’ experience work together with our financial experts to provide comprehensive solutions for our clients.

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