The launch of the third phase of the DGI (DGI-3) was endorsed by the G20 Leaders in November 2022. The main objective of the DGI-3 is to close data gaps on several pressing policy challenges: the climate crisis, increasing economic polarization, and large-scale digital transformation. To support policymakers’ ability to develop the right policy measures, the DGI-3 aims at implementing robust, comprehensive, and comparable statistics on four policy priority areas: climate change mitigation and adaptation, household distributional aspects, financial innovation and inclusion, and data access and sharing.
To support the DGI-3, the WGSD developed a project plan for a Recommendation 4 on Climate Finance, which defines precise data sets on green debt securities and green listed shares. According to the approved DGI-3 workplan, Recommendation 4 envisages G20 economies to “provide (preferably on a quarterly frequency) experimental data on issuances and holdings of green debt securities and listed shares securities to the BIS, based on self-commitments and consistent as much as possible with the Handbook on Securities Statistics (HSS), and any other specific guidance developed in the context of the recommendation, and provide documentation on the compilation methodology” and to “work together with other economies and the relevant international organizations and in cooperation with the other recommendations to develop methodological guidance to support greater interoperability and comparability of approaches for the statistical recording of green debt securities and listed shares across the G20 economies.”
To kick off the work on Recommendation 4 on Climate Finance, the WGSD organised a Virtual Thematic Workshop on Securities Statistics and DGI-3 Recommendation 4 on Climate Finance on 15-16 May 2023, which was attended by Recommendation 4 Task Team members and other representatives from 21 G20 and FSB economies, the FSB, the OECD, the World Bank and the WGSD members. At the Workshop, participants discussed the Recommendation 4 project plan, started the work on defining the Recommendation 4 reporting templates, and exchanged experiences on the collection and compilation of climate finance data. Regarding the Recommendation 4 reporting infrastructure, Task Team members stressed the importance of the use of the self-commitments approach and considered it a sensible way forward to leverage on the existing infrastructure implemented by the G20 economies under DGI-2 Recommendation 7 on Securities Statistics. Regarding the methodology for defining green securities, the Workshop participants emphasised the need for a close alignment with the ongoing methodological work in the context of the update of the System of National Accounts (SNA) Manual.
To provide a better overview of the ongoing work on climate finance data across economies, the WGSD conducted a survey on securities statistics and climate finance data during July/August 2023. The results of the survey showed that G20/FSB economies are at different stages of implementation in their work on climate finance statistics. Most economies already collect data (usually s-b-s data) on issuances of green securities, covering typically data on green, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds. In contrast, only a few economies already collect data (almost always s-b-s) on holdings of green securities, again covering typically data on green, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds. Overall, the survey results suggested a promising basis for the implementation of Recommendation 4, as already existing data collections on green debt securities are generally aligned with the basic structure of the proposed Recommendation 4 reporting templates.
To progress with the work on the Recommendation 4 reporting templates and methodology, a physical Workshop on Securities Statistics for G20 and FSB economies was held in Cape Town (ZA) on 5-6 October 2023. It was hosted by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) with the support of the BIS IFC and organised by the WGSD. It was attended by 72 Recommendation 4 Task Team members and other representatives from 19 G20 and FSB economies, 4 other IFC member central banks, the WGSD members, OECD, and FSB. (Out of these, 7 G20 and FSB economies, 3 other IFC central banks, the OECD and FSB were following the Workshop virtually.)
At the Workshop, Task Team members agreed on the Recommendation 4 reporting templates and targets. The templates cover a set of tables for issuances, holdings and from-whom-to-whom statistics on green bonds, sustainability bonds, sustainability-linked bonds, and green listed shares, with the templates on the different types of green debt securities presenting “of which” breakdowns of the established DGI-2 Recommendation 7 breakdowns. The reporting targets include a basic intermediate target for core data on green bonds by end-2025 and a final target for other data by the end of the DGI-3 at end-2027. The reporting will rely on the existing DGI-2 Recommendation 7 reporting infrastructure, including frequency, timeliness, use of the methodology of the Handbook on Securities Statistics (HSS), and use of the Global DSD for Sector Accounts (NA_SEC). The agreed templates and targets are described in an accompanying “Explanatory Note on the Recommendation 4 Reporting Templates”.
Task Team members agreed to collect economies’ self-commitments on green debt securities by end-2023, while self-commitments for green listed shares should be collected later in 2024 once the concept of green listed shares has been further defined.
The Workshop also started discussing the definitions for green securities, provided feedback on the draft definitions developed by the Intersecretariat Working Group on National Accounts (ISWGNA) in the context of the SNA update process, and discussed to promote further harmonisation by incorporating a new chapter on climate finance statistics in the next update of the HSS. Task Team members also continued exchanging experiences on climate finance data and concluded that deepening such cooperation will be key for the success of Recommendation 4. To progress with the work on the Recommendation 4 implementation work, including the work on definitions of green securities, Task Team members will meet at the upcoming Virtual Workshop on Recommendation 4 organised by the WGSD in the second half of 2024.
By January 2024, Recommendation 4 Task Team members provided their self-commitments on the Recommendation 4 reporting templates for green debt securities (tables 1.1a to 3.1c of the Recommendation 4 reporting templates).