Anglian Water has issued a corporate green bond to direct water pipeline to drier areas to improve resilience against droughts following extreme weather conditions this summer.
Issued in the Canadian ‘maple’ bond market, the group said it will fund its Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA) which is delivering a new network of hundreds of kilometres of large-scale interconnecting pipelines to move water to drier areas, alongside other future resilience projects identified by Anglian Water. The SPA is said to be one of the largest infrastructure projects in the UK.
This year saw one of the driest Julys on record since 1911 and the driest summer since 1976, Anglian Water highlighted. Today (30 August), the UK Environment Agency declared a drought for the England’s South West region, meaning 11 of the 14 areas covered by the agency are now in drought.
Group treasurer, Jane Pilcher, said: “The impacts of climate change are acutely impacting the water industry in the UK, and the world over. Ours is the driest region in the UK and particularly vulnerable to climate change.
“Therefore, reducing our carbon emissions and adapting to the climate emergency is embedded in everything we do. Spend on resilience to climate change and environmental protection is vitally important. This focus is why 100% of our debt raised in 2021/22 was sustainable finance.”
In 2017, the company issued a public utility sterling green bond, which it said is the first to do so, and in 2021 it was the first water company to issue a sustainability-linked bond tied to net-zero commitments.
