NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, August 3, 2017

More than $90 billion worth of green bonds were issued last year to finance everything from the erection of solar farms to the restoration of degraded forests, and Moody’s Investor Services says that number will more than double this year, to $206 billion. On Friday, JPMorgan Chase lent that projection credence by committing to funnel $200 billion into sustainable development projects between now and 2025.

The commitment represents about $20 billion per year in clean energy finance, up from roughly $15 billion that the bank handled last year, and it’s as much a declaration of faith in the renewable energy sector as it is a commitment to do good. But sustainability finance goes well beyond wind farms and solar power installations.

The $25 billion “restoration economy”, for example, pays over 220,000 people in the United States alone to plant trees, restore rivers, and turn soggy, unproductive farms into wetlands that filter water, purify air, and slow climate change – and JPMorgan Chase has a promising history of supporting it.