According to a report by the international organisation Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), debt issuance for the sole purpose of financing projects to improve the environment so far in 2021 is almost 30% higher than that issued in the first months of 2020 globally.

Since 2014, the number of global issuances has steadily increased. The year 2020 saw a record high, reaching USD 270 billion. According to the CBI, a total of 45.42 billion dollars in green bonds were issued in January and February 2021. This figure is 29.7% higher than in the same months of 2020 (around 35.5 billion dollars).

In Latin America in particular, in the first months of 2021, new green bond issuance is led by Brazil and Mexico, following the trend of 2020. The last publication of detailed and consolidated information by region by CBI already showed in the first half of 2020 that, despite the restrictions due to the pandemic, Latin America was one of the few regions that had managed to maintain levels of green bond issuance close to those in the same period of 2019. At that time, the cumulative figure for the first half of 2020 indicated that Chile, Brazil and Mexico led the region in new bond issuance.

During 2020, Chile continued with the sustainable sovereign bond issuance it had started in 2019. In September 2020, Mexico issued the first sustainable sovereign bond associated with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 750 million euros.