International Financial Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group, has issued its first internationally rated triple-A peso-denominated green bond which is equivalent to $90 million. The bond, called Mabuhay Bond, will support local capital market and renewable energy with maturity period of 15 years.

According to IFC, Mabuhay Bond will be the first green bond, denominated in Philippine pesos, to be issued by a multilateral development institution.

“IFC’s Mabuhay bond showcases the powerful role that capital markets could play in mobilizing savings for climate finance. Adding pesos as a new green bond currency supports our goal to strengthen this important asset class,” said Jingdong Hua, the vice president at IFC in a media statement.

IFC will use the return from the bond to help Energy Development Corporation’s (EDC), capital expenditure program. EDC is Philippines’ largest producer of geothermal energy and the fund from IFC will also make it more sustainable and resilient from the impact of climate change. It produced approximately 9 percent of Philippines power generation capacity in 2016.

IFC is one of the world’s largest financer of climate projects in developing countries and has issued triple-A rated bond in local currency in over 30 countries.

In December 2017, the first green bond was launched by a commercial bank, BDO Unibank Inc, in the Philippines and it attracted a $150 million investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to help expand financing for private sector investments to address climate change.

The market for green bonds has witnessed continuously increasing activity in recent times. Since their introduction in 2007, they have become mainstream in the financial community. With the annual issuance reaching $155 billion in 2017, green bonds had a 78 percent increase over 2016.

Recently, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a public pension fund, also announced its foray into green bonds. This would make CPPIB the first pension fund to issue green bonds, according to the board.

Then in May 2018, one of the world’s leading financial institutions, Bank of America, announced a $2.25 billion green bond to support clean energy projects.