Written by Nicolas Léonard
Published on 30.09.2021
Laetitia Hamon (head of sustainable finance at LuxSE) and Julie Becker (CEO of LuxSE) with Finance Minister Pierre Gramegna, keynote speaker at this anniversary event dedicated to sustainable finance. (Photo: Luxembourg Stock Exchange)
The Luxembourg Green Exchange, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange's platform for the listing of sustainable securities, celebrated its fifth anniversary on Wednesday evening.
In September 2016, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE) launched the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LXG), a platform for the listing of sustainable securities as a response to the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Five years later, the results speak for themselves: more than 1,000 sustainable debt securities from 200 issuers from 40 different countries are listed. At the same time, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange has become a global reference for green, social and sustainable bonds.
The anniversary was celebrated with an event dedicated to sustainable finance, attended by finance minister Pierre Gramegna (DP), Bertrand Piccard of the Solar Impulse Foundation, head of Pacta at the 2° Investing Initiative Maarten Vleeschhouwer, Oxford University researcher Arunma Oteh, and S&P Global Sustainable1 Chairman Richard Mattison.
Julie Becker, CEO, LuxSE
Julie Becker, LuxSE CEO, and Laetitia Hamon, head of sustainable finance, took the opportunity to recall the steps taken.
"When we created LGX, we knew we were taking a risk by setting a very high bar for green bond issuers. Today, looking back at all we have achieved and all the issuers that have joined LGX to date, we can safely conclude that we made the right choice. After five years, our mission to transform finance is as strong and necessary as ever, and we will continue our work to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon and more inclusive economy," said Becker, who founded the LGX.
The exchange began as a platform dedicated to green bonds. Only a year later, the scope was expanded to include social and sustainability bonds. In 2018, a section for socially responsible investing (SRI) funds was opened and two years later sustainability bonds were added. This year, a new section dedicated to climate-aligned issuers was added in partnership with the Climate Bonds Initiative.
In 2020, LuxSE entered the field of sustainability education and data via the LGX Academy. The exchange also created the LGX DataHub, a centralised database of structured sustainability data on over 3,200 sustainable bonds. Together with German index provider Solactive, LuxSE also created the Solactive LGX Green Bond Impact Index at the end of last year.
All this has earned the Luxembourg Stock Exchange international recognition. It has won the United Nations Global Climate Action Award 2020 for its role in accelerating the financing of climate-friendly investments, and has been selected as the Stock Exchange of the Year at the Environmental Finance Bond Awards for the past five years.
This story was first published in French on Paperjam. It has been translated and edited for Delano.