University of Zurich compared SLBs to their non-labelled equivalents. 55 of the bond pairs saw a sustainabilty premium larger than penalty attached for not meeting KPIs. 36 of the pairs saw no or a negative premium. Premium was higher for callable bonds, where the issuer may repay the debt before maturity and often before the KPI measurement date.

Polish energy providers detail the cost of carbon-emission permits in invoices to households. These costs are high, as Poland relies on coal for more than 70% of power generation. It will cost $415 billion, or about two-thirds of gross domestic product, for Poland to reach the EU’s net-zero emissions goal by 2050, according to government estimates.

The Luxembourg Stock Exchange marked the admission of the first financial instruments registered on a public distributed ledger technology (DLT). The three series of security tokens admitted on LuxSE SOL are digital covered bonds (housing finance bonds) and structured products. They are financial instruments and debt securities under French law.

Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norway’s $1.3tn sovereign wealth fund said inflation could be stronger than expected: “It hits bonds and shares at the same time. For the next few years, it will hit both.” AQR Capital Management estimated that a classic portfolio of 60% stocks and 40% bonds would return just 2% annually after inflation over the next 5-10 years.

Kazakhstan's market share is more than 40% of the world’s nuclear fuel and it is the lowest-cost producer. Some buyers are looking to diversify their sources of supply, which means paying a premium. China is planning 150 new reactors. The EU plans to class nuclear as green. The supply may not be able to rise quickly enough to satisfy the demand.

TransAlta Renewables has to replace the foundations of 50 wind turbines at Kent Hills wind farm. An investigation has revealed serious structural issues. This caused a 100-metre-tall turbine to collapse in the fall of 2021. The company expects the work to cost between $75 and $100 million. Kent Hills wind turbines will remain offline until the end of 2023.

Prices of copper, platinum and lithium are rising. Copper is needed for wind farms, platinum for hydrogen production, and lithium for battery production. New environmental guidelines are making future production of copper and aluminium more difficult. This could make carbon dioxide-free electricity significantly more expensive than previously thought.

The EU will need to invest €500 billion in new generation nuclear power stations, said Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner. To label energy from nuclear power and natural gas as "green" was a vital step towards attracting investors. Currently, the bloc gets 26% of its energy from nuclear power, by 2050, this would be reduced to 15%.

ESMA has published a paper seeking feedback on possible changes to regulatory standards and reporting requirements when deploying distributed ledger technology (DLT) for securities trading and settlement. The consultation comes in the wake of plans for a pilot regime for trading and settling digital securities issued, traded and recorded on DLT.

In 2021 banks pocketed US$3.4 billion from green-labelled debt deals, compared with US$3.3B from their work with oil, gas and coal companies. In 2020, the split was US$1.9B for green and US$3.7B for fossil fuels. Analysts expect that US$2.5 trillion of debt advertised as green or ESG-oriented will be issued this year, up from US$1.5T in 2021.

The European Commission’s latest proposal to label natural gas and nuclear energy as green sources under the so-called EU taxonomy has reopened schisms within the bloc. Natural gas accounted for 22.3% of the EU’s energy mix in 2019, with nuclear power making up 13.1% according to Eurostat, but their use varies in every member state.

The crisis has left the EU at the mercy of the weather and Vladimir Putin’s wiles. Natural gas storage sites are only 56% full, more than 15 percentage points below the 10-year average. Russia is building troops on the border with Ukraine. The energy situation limits the scope of actions Western powers can take to counter Russian aggression.