Today, the Republic of Austria has published the Green Investor Report 2023, the second report on the allocation and the climate and environmental impact of green funding of the federal government.
In 2023, the Republic of Austria issued green financing instruments with a total volume of EUR 5.513 bn. For example, a second Green Government Bond with a volume of EUR 3.0 bn (maturity: 23 May 2029; coupon: 2.9%) was issued in April 2023. The green pillar of the financing strategy was further expanded last year: Green Austrian Treasury Bills, issued for the first time in 2022, were rolled over or tapped on four dates in 2023. On 6 March 2023, the issuance of Green Austrian Commercial Paper began, which represented another novelty in the global sovereign debt market. At the end of March 2023, the Austrian green financing universe was further expanded with the introduction of Green Deposits. With the issuance of a Green EMTN in December 2023, the Republic of Austria has utilised all green financing instruments available under the green framework published in 2022.
In total, green budgetary expenditures of the federal government for 2022 and 2023 amounted to EUR 4.8 bn and EUR 5.7 bn respectively. For the current budgetary year 2024, the latest forecast for eligible green expenditures is around EUR 6.6 billion. With this, the Republic of Austria has the highest share of green budgetary expenditures in relation to GDP of all green sovereign issuers worldwide.
The EUR 5.513 billion financed in 2023 were allocated to green budget expenditures for 2022 (amounting to EUR 2.7 bn) and 2023 (amounting to EUR 2.8 bn). Based on currently available data, a green funding volume of around EUR 6.2bn is expected for 2024 (vs. guidance of “over EUR 6bn” communicated last December).
As in the previous year, this report is a combined allocation and impact report. It provides information on the use of proceeds (allocation report) and contains an analysis of the environmental impact (impact report).
With 41 different KPIs (7 impact and 34 performance indicators), it provides a very comprehensive picture. Over their useful life, the financed projects are leading to a total reduction/avoidance of 4.4 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year and the projects financed in the areas of "renewable energies" and "energy efficiency" enable annual energy savings of 1.5 million MWh.
The combined report was prepared by the Green Bond Board Management (Federal Ministry of Finance, Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology; headed by the Austrian Treasury) in close cooperation with the Environment Agency Austria, which conducted the impact analysis with the involvement of other ministries (e.g. Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management) and other organisations (e.g. ÖBB Infrastruktur). The Republic of Austria was supported by UniCredit Bank as advisor in the preparation of the second Green Investor Report. The external review (Second Party Opinion) was carried out by ISS Corporate.