Bhutan remains highly exposed to climate change impacts and natural disasters, which pose a significant threat to Bhutan’s economic stability with potential impacts seen to citizen’s livelihoods, particularly those working in the agricultural sector. As Bhutan maintains its carbon-negative status in the face of mounting pressure to accelerate economic growth, the additional burden of climate adaptation and mitigation entails enormous costs. Bhutan graduated from its LDC status in December 2023, which curtails its access to concessional financing and furthers the need to leverage alternative and innovative sources of finance.
Globally, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the “SDG Stimulus to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” in February 2023. Together with reforms of the international financial architecture, it calls for immediate actions to cut government borrowing costs and make financing for governments longer-term.
At the request of the Government of Bhutan, ESCAP is organizing a half-day policy dialogue on sovereign financing and two-day sustainability bond issuance training.
Overall Objectives
The workshop will:
- Explore policy options to lower government financing costs from national and international community’s perspectives.
- Introduce the ESCAP macroeconomic model to assess the long-term impacts of selected national policies on economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
- Provide a refresher from last year's training and updates on the current status of the government’s Sustainability Bond Issuance.
- Review the final Sustainable Finance Framework and its key features.
- Develop a common understanding of the principles of sustainability bond issuance and taxonomies for the issuance of sustainable debt instruments.
- Ensure a comprehensive understanding of sustainability bond issuance through best practice case studies.
- Identify the pipeline of projects which should be prioritized under the bond framework, ensuring alignment with national priorities and nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
- Build an understanding of the listing process for a sustainability bond on international exchanges.
- Improve understanding of post-issuance reporting and monitoring.
