Düsseldorf/Münster, February 6, 2025
“North Rhine-Westphalia’s transformation towards climate neutrality is a huge challenge. To master it, we need to develop ways to channel private capital, in particular, into corresponding projects,” says Gabriela Pantring, Deputy Chairwoman of the Managing Board of NRW.BANK. “This is exactly where our Green Bonds come in, enabling investors to participate in North Rhine-Westphalian projects with particular ecological benefits.”
300 million euros of the current Green Bond will be used to promote green building projects such as the construction of new energy-efficient buildings and the corresponding refurbishment of existing ones. Just under a third, 224 million euros, will be employed to finance clean transport projects such as climate-friendly trams, hydrogen buses and the expansion of electromobility.
Around 170 million euros will be invested in the expansion of renewable energies, including the refinancing of wind and solar farms as well as solar roofs. Funds in the amount of 50 million euros will be used for the further renaturation of the Emscher and Lippe rivers as well as flood prevention programmes. A smaller part is earmarked for water infrastructure projects and the expansion of the fibre optic network.
The effectiveness of the investments is also demonstrated by an analysis by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. According to calculations for the 2023 NRW.BANK.Green Bond, the refinanced projects will save greenhouse gases totalling 2.5 million tons of CO2 equivalents over the seven-year term of the bond. NRW.BANK publishes the results of the impact analysis annually in its Green Bond Report. The next report will be published in the second quarter of 2025.
The 16th Green Bond now issued by NRW.BANK brings the total volume of NRW.BANK.Green Bonds to 9.5 billion euros. The lead managers were DZ BANK, LBBW, NatWest and Unicredit. The bond is listed at the stock exchanges in Düsseldorf and Luxembourg under ISIN DE000NWB0AY4. The minimum denomination of the seven-year bond is 1,000 euros.
With sustainability principles in mind, NRW.BANK has issued its own Green Bonds since 2013 and started issuing Social Bonds in 2020. The Bank’s green funding curve offers funding recipients the opportunity to finance projects that make a substantial contribution to climate action within the meaning of the EU taxonomy at particularly favourable conditions. This green curve is laid down in NRW.BANK’s sustainability strategy.
For more information on the NRW.BANK.Green Bond, visit www.nrwbank.de/en/green-bonds.
To learn more about sustainability at NRW.BANK, see www.nrwbank.de/en/sustainability/.
NRW.BANK - the promotional bank for North Rhine-Westphalia
NRW.BANK is the promotional bank of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). In close partnership with its owner, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Bank helps to strengthen SMEs and start-ups, create affordable housing and improve public infrastructure. To fulfil its mandate, NRW.BANK offers people, enterprises and local authorities tailor-made financing solutions and advisory services. It cooperates with its financing partners, in particular all banks and savings banks, on a competition-neutral basis. NRW.BANK operates largely independently of the state budget. In order to accelerate the transformation processes, the promotional bank provides effective promotional impulses – for a sustainable, climate-neutral and digital North Rhine-Westphalia.