THE MARINE RENEWABLE
ENERGY CRITERIAClimate Bonds Standard
What are the Marine
Renewable Energy
Criteria?
These Criteria lay out therequirements that marine
renewable energy assets must meet to beeligible for Climate Bonds Certification.
The bond must also meet the reporting
and transparency requirements of theoverarching Climate Bonds Standard V2.1 toreceive Certification. This note is an overview
of the Criteria, for full details see the Criteria
document.
What underpins the Criteria?
The guiding principle for the Climate Bonds
Standard is that certified assets and projects
must be in line with limiting warming to 2°C
and support climate resilience of the asset
and surrounding environment.
The Criteria embed transformative steps
not incremental improvements for rapid
decarbonisation.

Why certify a Marine Renewable Energy
Bond with the Climate Bonds Standard?
Certification allows issuers to demonstrate
to the market that their bond meets
industry best practice for climate integrity,
management of proceeds and transparency.
Marine renewable energy has not yet made up
a significant share of the green bond market
and there are not commonly accepted bestpractice standards in the sector. Therefore,
certification indicates to investors that proper
environmental due diligence has been done on
the assets they are investing in – a robust andcredible way for this new asset type to enter
the green bond market.
Other benefits of issuing a Certified Climate
Bond include; investor diversification (marine
renewable energy issuers should find they
attract new investors by certifying), greater
investor engagement, investor stickiness(investors buying Certified Climate Bonds
tend to buy and hold), strengthened

reputation (certifying shows commitment todelivering low carbon infrastructure) and afreeing up of balance sheets.
How will the Criteria assist in growing thegreen bond market?
The rapid growth in the green bond market overthe past 3 years has been met with questions
around the environmental credentials ofthese bonds and about what assets are
suitable for inclusion in a green bond.
The Marine Renewable Energy Criteria indicate
to potential issuers and the market whattypes of assets and projects should and canbe included in green bonds. They define
what low carbon and climate resilient marine
renewable energy infrastructure is.
The Criteria highlights that marine renewableenergy projects are prime for inclusion in agreen bond, given their low carbon credentials
and subject to being climate resilient.

Will your project meet the Marine Renewable Energy Criteria? It’s as easy as 1
STEP

1

Comply with
Disclosure
Component

STEP

2Comply with
Mitigation
Component

Information required:project locationand size, lifespan, key stakeholders,
description of activities (e.g. installation,operation, decommissioning, facility
capacity and generation), details of
where the energy generated is going
and avoided GHG emissions

Marine Renewable
Energy projects
automatically pass the mitigation
component, provided fossil fuel backup is only used for restart capability
and monitoring / operating / resiliencemeasures in the event of no renewable
power in the system.

For most issuers this information isreadily available and already public. To
show compliance it should just be amatter of collating the information.

For most issuers, proving compliancewith this checklist will often be a matterof pointing to the Adaptation Plan and/or Environmental Impact Assessment.

Introduction to the Marine Renewable Energy Criteria Climate Bonds Standard June 2017

STEP32 3Comply with
Adaptation& Resilience
Component

Complete checklist to show:
1. Climate related risks to the asset areunderstood
2. The impacts the asset has on theresilience of stakeholders and theenvironment are understood
3. Strategies exist to mitigate and adapt
to climate risks
4. Strategies exist to promote resilienceof the wider system
5. Assets or projects have no negativeenvironmental impacts

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The Criteria apply to all marine renewableenergy technologies and related dedicatedinfrastructure
A diverse array of technologies are being
developed and deployed for marine
renewable energy generation from wind,solar, waves, ocean currents and tides, aswell as salinity and temperature gradients.
As technologies progress from research andprototyping to commercial scale, marine
renewable energy offers potential to meet
power needs. To realise this potential,
investment in the sector is imperative.
Technology convergence has not yet
occurred and new applications continue
to emerge. For this reason, the Marine
Renewable Energy Criteria have been
designed to be technology agnostic; i.e.
they apply to all types of marine renewableenergy generation including offshore wind,offshore solar, wave power and tidal power.
This will allow emerging marine renewableenergy technologies to comply in the future.
While we have had Wind & Solar Criteria
active for some time, from this point offshore
wind and solar projects will be evaluatedusing these Criteria as they better coverissues, such as siting, which are relevant given
their location in complex marine ecosystems.
Why the three components: disclosure,mitigation and adaptation & resilience?

components; disclosure, mitigation andadaptation & resilience. This gives investors’
confidence in the climate credentials of theunderlying assets in the investments
they are making.
The disclosure component; basic
information so investors can understandthe projects and assets financed
The disclosure component has been included
to give clarity to investors on the detailsof the projects in the Certified Climate
Bond. Issuers must provide the required
information (where applicable) but nojudgement is made on answers.
This component was designed to ask for
information that is often publicly disclosed
anyway but often not included in bondoffering documents.
The mitigation component; renewables arelow carbon, so they get a free pass
All the Criteria developed under the Climate
Bonds Standard have a GHG mitigation
component. This is fundamental to showingthat projects are in line with a low carbon
future.
Marine renewable energy projects
automatically pass the mitigation component,
so long as they have minimal fossil fuel backup. This is due to the very low carbon footprintof the assets over their full lifespan.

For a project to satisfy the Marine Renewable
Energy Criteria it must comply with all three

Industry Working Group
members include:

Technical Working Group
members include:

The adaptation & resilience component;
marine renewables need to be resilient andconscious of local ecosystems
Climate Bonds Standard Criteria are now
developed to include a climate adaptation &resilience component alongside GHG mitigation.
Climate change is now unavoidable and it isvital that we limit emissions. Projects must beable to demonstrate they have been designed,
built and are being operated with this in mind.
They also must not jeopardise the resilienceof the system they are located in.
Evidence to show compliance with thiscomponent will often come from the
project’s Adaptation Plan, Environmental
Impact Assessment or Planning Consent, socomplying should be a matter of pointing out
the relevant parts.
Developed by leaders in the marine
renewable energy sector
Climate Bonds Initiative convened twogroups, a Technical Working Group (TWG)
and an Industry Working Group (IWG),
to develop the Marine Renewable Energy
Criteria. We worked closely with the TWG
to develop these Criteria based on theirexpertise. The IWG provided feedback onthe Criteria proposed.
Across the two groups there wasrepresentation from current market leadersin the academic, NGO, issuer, investor andverifier worlds – full membership details canbe found on our website.

The Resource andInformation Suite
Want to certify, or just know more?
Take a look at these documents:
1. The Marine Renewable Energy
Criteria document – full requirementsof the Criteria
2. The Marine Renewable Energy
Background Paper – full details of theTWG and IWG discussions
3. Climate Bonds Standard &Certification Scheme Brochure
4. Climate Bonds Standard V2.1 – fullrequirements of the Climate Bonds
Standard
Go to www.climatebonds.netOr email katie@climatebonds.net

Disclaimer: The information contained in this communication does not constitute investment advice in any form and the Climate Bonds Initiative is not an investment adviser. Any reference to a financial organisation
or investment product is for information purposes only. Links to external websites are for information purposes only. The Climate Bonds Initiative accepts no responsibility for content on external websites. The ClimateBonds Initiative is not endorsing, recommending or advising on the merits or otherwise of any investment or investment product and no information within this communication should be taken as such, nor should anyinformation in this communication be relied upon in making any investment decision. A decision to invest in anything is solely yours. The Climate Bonds Initiative accepts no liability of any kind, for any investment anindividual or organisation makes, nor for any investment made by third parties on behalf of an individual or organisation, based in whole or in part on any information contained within this, or any other Climate Bonds
Initiative public communication. © Climate Bonds Initiative 2017

Introduction to the Marine Renewable Energy Criteria Climate Bonds Standard June 2017

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