Green Bonds - For, Us It's Personal

A green bond is a debt finance instrument used to raise funds specifically for a "green" purpose such as a renewable energy project, a conservation program or a climate change mitigation/adaptation measure.

As BVI and Cayman finance lawyers, we are keen to promote our jurisdictions for the issuance of green bonds but, as island-dwellers, green and sustainability-linked finance is even more important to us. This is not just because we have thriving tourism economies that depend upon clean beaches and clear turquoise waters; climate change actually goes to the very habitability of the islands we call home. For us, it's personal.

In 2017, Hurricane Irma ripped through the Eastern Caribbean and damaged or destroyed 4,000 homes. The economic cost of the disaster was estimated at over US$10 billion, but it would have been even worse had it not been for two lines of defence in the BVI. Just months earlier, a boulder structure had been engineered at Cane Garden Bay,