Municipal Green Bonds: The Next ESG Battleground

When red-state policymakers began to target ESG (environment, social and governance) investing for attack, it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt. As it happens, that someone is the local taxpayer. A new anti-ESG state law in Texas has already induced one city to miss out on the most competitive bid for its municipal bond sale. As for cities in blue states, growth in the market for municipal green bonds could help ensure economic health and resiliency in the era of climate change.

Somebody’s gonna get hurt: Small city loses $277,334 on bond sale

An early sign of trouble appeared last September when Bloomberg reported that the city of Anna, Texas (population 16,792) declined to pick the best bid for its bond sale. The bidder, Citigroup, apparently ran afoul of a new state law, SB 19. That law passed in 2021 with the goal of protecting gun industry stakeholders from being passed over by financial firms with ESG policies.

Citigroup is one such firm. In 2018, the company set a relatively mild "best practices" policy on gun sales for its retail clients. The new policy required background checks and a 21-year age threshold, and it limited the sale of extra-lethal equipment such as bump stocks and high-capacity magazines.

“It is not centered on an ideological mission to rid the world of firearms,” Ed Skyler, Citigroup's EVP of global public affairs, said of the policy back in 2018. “But we want to do our part as a company to prevent firearms from getting into the wrong hands.”

Skyler also noted that Citigroup's policy applied to retail clients only, not to the company's relationships with gun manufacturers, which he described as “few.” Even so, that was enough to set off alarm bells under SB 19. 

As described by Bloomberg, city officials in Anna rejected Citibank’s bid after discussing the matter with the state Attorney General. They dropped the opportunity to get the best deal, reportedly costing local taxpayers $277,334.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Earlier this month, a Wharton analysis concluded that SB 19 and a similar bill, SB 13, will cost Texas municipal bond issuers $300 million to $500 million in additional interest over the first eight months after enactment.

A follow-up analysis commissioned by Ceres and the investor group As You Sow also indicated that similar losses are in store for cities as a group of state policymakers consider similar laws. That group includes lawmakers in Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia.

Picking winners and losers in the market for municipal green bonds 

The prospect of a negative bottom-line outcome for city residents will probably not make red-state policymakers change their minds and stop the crusade against ESG investing. After all, punishing city dwellers to make a point is par for the course among red-state policymakers.

In contrast, blue-state taxpayers can look forward to a competitive environment for their municipal bond sales, including municipal green bonds.

Earlier this month, an organization of international investors called the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) released a report in support of the U.S. municipal market titled, “The thematic ESG approach in U.S. municipal bonds.”

“As the largest liquid sub-sovereign debt market in the world, the U.S. muni bond market merits consideration by ESG-minded fixed income investors,” PRI emphasized.

PRI is tasked with promoting the six ESG principles outlined by the United Nations Global Compact in 2006. More than 1,500 investment firms have signed onto the principles, with assets under management totaling an eye-popping $62 trillion.

In the report, PRI noted that municipal bonds are “well-positioned for investors pursuing a thematic ESG approach.” While cautioning that investors still need to exercise due diligence, the report's authors noted that thematic or “labelled” municipal bonds can “help investors assess and report on the environmental and social outcomes of their investments.”

PRI analyst Jasper Cox elaborated: “U.S. municipal bonds are useful for fixed income investors seeking to contribute to sustainability outcomes, since issuers of these bonds are crucial for the wellbeing of most Americans and also the transition to a low carbon economy.”

Based on data culled from PRI’s ESG reporting platform, the organization observed that momentum is growing for “thematic ESG investing in U.S. muni bonds due to increasing investor interest in environmental and social themes.”

Among other factors, the report also took note of “growing opportunities to fund climate-related projects.”

Indeed, some PRI signatories are using muni bonds to align investment objectives with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals or, alternatively, exclude bonds linked to revenue from certain sectors, such as tobacco.

Yes, interest in municipal green bonds is growing

Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs provided another indication that the outlook for municipal green bonds in the U.S. is a healthy one — at least for blue-state cities.

“The global bond market will be an important source of investment to drive the climate transition, and green bonds finance projects with positive environmental impact,” the firm’s lead portfolio manager for green, social and impact bonds, Bram Bos, wrote in a company blog post.

Bos explained that the market for municipal green bonds is expanding as the twin forces of investor interest and government policymaking come to bear. Though much of the activity has been centered in Europe, Goldman Sachs expects the pace to pick up in the U.S. and elsewhere in the coming years, Bos reported.

That outlook was affirmed back in 2021 by Fidelity, which issued a white paper noting that municipal green bonds were a small but growing segment of the market.

“Provided that the bonds meet the investor’s current investment objectives and that the investor understands the associated risks, Green Bonds may present a unique investment opportunity,” Fidelity stated.

ESG is here to stay

CNN ran the numbers earlier this week and reported that “sustainable investing generated returns similar to the market” last year. That’s an interesting contrast with the New York Times, which ran a string of articles critical of ESG investing last year.

Among other data indicating strength in the ESG area, CNN cited the Morningstar U.S. Sustainability Index, which fell 18.9 percent in 2022. That may look bad at first, but in the context of an overall market downturn, the Index actually did better than the S&P 500 — which fell 19.4 percent.

Against this backdrop, the anti-ESG, “anti-woke” movement is simply another Republican exercise in performative politics, aimed at mollifying their supporters in the fossil energy and weapons industries while feeding the emotions of their angry base, regardless of the consequences for everyone else.

It's little wonder that the Republican Party underperformed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections by a wide margin. The world is passing them by, and that includes ESG investors and the voters who benefit from fact-based financial decision-making in the era of climate change.

Image credit: Perry Merrity II/Unsplash