Reporting 2017

Reporting as of 31 December 2017:

As one of the world's largest financiers of renewable energy, KfW endeavours to make an active contribution to climate protection through its capital market activities. Amounts equal to the net proceeds from the issuances are invested in projects under KfW's programme "Renewable Energies - Standard".

In 2017, KfW issued seven green bonds: in the first quarter, KfW tapped its GBP green bond (XS1268337844) by GBP 250 million. The bond was initially issued in 2015. By now, the total outstanding of that issuance amounts to GBP 1 billion. In May, KfW issued its largest green bond ever with a final size of EUR 2 billion and 8 years maturity (XS1612940558). With its fourth EUR denominated green bond, KfW fulfills investors’ needs for liquidity and delivers an interesting product for green bond investors. In August, KfW increased its AUD green bond (AU000KFWHAC9) by AUD 200 million thereby also enhancing liquidity of the issue. The line was tapped by further AUD 200 million in October. Taking into account these taps, the outstanding volume of the AUD green bond line, initially issued in 2015, reached AUD 1 billion. Furthermore, KfW issued two private placement green bonds under its US-MTN programme in August and September. The size of these issues with 3 years maturity each amounts to USD 150 million and USD 200 million respectively. Finally, KfW issued a USD 1 billion Global green bond with 5 years maturity (US500769HP20). That issue is the fourth of its kind since 2014.

The net proceeds from the issuances amount to an equivalent of approximately EUR 3.7 billion. Proceeds in foreign currency are converted into euro at the ECB's reference exchange rate on the pricing date of the respective issuance.

In the same period, KfW received requests for disbursements under its loan programme “Renewable Energies – Standard” in an amount of EUR 4.1 billion.

An amount equal to the net proceeds from KfW's green bonds issued in 2017 was fully invested in projects under the loan programme "Renewable Energies - Standard" as of 31 December 2017. Thus, 90% of the total disbursements under the programme in that period were refinanced through green bonds.

98% of all requests for disbursements were related to projects for the use of wind energy (86%) and solar energy (12%). 2% accounted for hydropower, biogas/biomass systems as well as other technologies.

With 73%, the projects financed were located primarily in Germany. The remaining 27% of all requests for disbursements were related to projects located outside Germany - in France, Finland, Norway, Ireland, Denmark, Japan, the UK, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Croatia.

Total 2017

The independent Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) has assessed the environmental and social impact of KfW’s loan programme “Renewable Energies – Standard” in Germany in recent years. On this basis, KfW estimates the environmental and social impact of its green bonds as follows:

Based of the estimated environmental and social impact, the EUR 3.7 billion net proceeds from KfW's green bonds issuances in 2017 contribute to the prevention of approximately 2.9 million tons of greenhouse gas (CO₂-equivalents) emissions per annum.

Furthermore, KfW estimates that the proceeds of the green bonds will create and/or secure more than 81,000 jobs and reduce energy imports to Germany and/or costs associated with fossil fuel in an amount of approximately EUR 255 million per annum. In addition, the green bonds contribute to the reduction of external costs – for example, by avoiding environmental and health damage – by approximately EUR 348 million per annum.

This estimated environmental and social impact is based on the total net proceeds and on the third-party evaluation data for recent years for projects located in Germany. Once an independent research institute has completed its evaluation of KfW’s loan programme "Renewable Energies - Standard" for the year 2017, which can take up to two years, KfW will separately announce the actual environmental and social impact of the green bond issuance listed above.

The estimates are based on programme impact 2010-2014 in Germany - numbers evaluated by ZSW - and internal calculations; Current and future impact might be different, especially for projects outside of Germany.

Deal review

List of green bond issuances

The reporting on the management of proceeds for the first quarter of 2018 will be disclosed at the end of April 2018.