Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast · Canadian Indigenous Investment Summit

The US$400BN Sustainable Bond Market of the London Stock Exchange Explained: Aude Rajonson, LSEG

·25 min·1 clip

The LSEG sustainable bond market began in 2015 with a dedicated green segment.

1. Drumbeats - Canadian Indigenous Investment Podcast speaks with Aude Rajonson about the London Stock Exchange's sustainable bond market and its link to Indigenous and community financing. 2. Mark McNacka and Rob Brant host Aude Rajonson, the Director and Head of Fixed Income Origination at LSEG, who says she is based in New York and has worked in debt capital markets. 3. The episode asks how the UK and Europe sustainable bond market can support Indigenous Peoples of Canada and other issuers seeking long-term capital. 4. Rajonson says her team covers more than 1,200 issuers that list debt securities globally, from Australia to Canada, Europe, and Africa. 5. She says those issuers include heads of funding, treasurers, ministries of finance, and other borrowers seeking access to international investors. 6. She explains that LSEG sits at the heart of global markets by matching investors looking for return and yield with companies, governments, agencies, multilateral development banks, and financial institutions needing capital. 7. Rajonson says the exchange serves more than $6 trillion in debt from issuers in over 90 countries and 50 currencies. 8. She argues that international markets can widen the investor pool, attract wealth funds, asset managers, and DFIs, and sometimes lower funding costs through price tension. 9. She says global markets can also give issuers currency diversification and longer-term financing for infrastructure and energy projects that may run 10, 20, or 30 years. 10. Rajonson points to Canadian users of the platform, including Saskatchewan, Alberta, and major Canadian banks, and says Canadian issuers have raised about $200 billion across nine currencies on LSEG markets. 11. She says LSEG celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its sustainable bond market after building the first major exchange green segment in 2015. 12. She links that launch to the ICMA Green Bond Principles, followed by Social Bond Principles and Sustainability Bond Guidelines. 13. Rajonson says the market later added sustainability-linked bonds and a transition segment under the sustainable bond umbrella. 14. She says the market now holds almost $400 billion in sustainable debt across 16 currencies and includes issuers from Canada. 15. She explains that green bonds fund environmental projects like climate action, biodiversity, forests, and ecosystem protection, while social bonds fund housing, education, healthcare, and basic infrastructure. 16. She says sustainable bonds combine green and social uses, while sustainability-linked bonds tie future improvements to predefined targets, as shown by Uruguay's step-down coupon structure. 17. Rajonson says transition bonds were added in 2021 for carbon-intensive sectors shifting toward more sustainable operations, and she cites Gate and Gas in the UK. 18. She describes blue bonds, rhino bonds, debt-for-nature swaps, forestry bonds, and Everland's $50 million outcome bond aimed at protecting the Amazon forest and its indigenous and traditional population. 19. The conversation is interview-driven, policy-focused, and heavily numerical, with Rajonson giving examples, market totals, and named issuers throughout. 20. Listeners interested in sustainable finance, bond structures, or Indigenous infrastructure funding will get the most from it, while people wanting a light conversational episode may skip it.

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