Although green bonds are becoming increasingly popular in the corporate finance practice, little is known about their implications and effectiveness in terms of issuers' environmental engagement. With the use of matched bond-issuer data, we test whether green bond issues are associated to a reduction in total and direct (Scope 1) emissions of nonfinancial companies. We find that, compared with conventional bond issuers with similar financial characteristics and environmental ratings, green issuers display a decrease in the carbon intensity of their assets after borrowing on the green segment. The decrease in emissions is more pronounced, significant and long-lasting when we exclude green bonds with refinancing purposes, which is consistent with an increase in the volume of climate-friendly activities due to new projects. We also find a larger reduction in emissions in case of green bonds that have external review, as well as those issued after the Paris Agreement.

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绿色债券作为应对气候变化的工具？

尽管绿色债券在企业融资实践中越来越受欢迎，但人们对其在发行人环境参与方面的影响和有效性知之甚少。通过使用匹配的债券发行人数据，我们测试发行绿色债券是否与减少非金融公司的总排放量和直接（范围 1）排放量有关。我们发现，与具有相似财务特征和环境评级的传统债券发行人相比，绿色发行人在绿色板块借款后其资产的碳强度有所下降。当我们排除以再融资为目的的绿色债券时，排放量的减少更加明显、显着和持久，这与新项目导致的气候友好活动数量增加是一致的。