Water companies have issued a fifth of the UK\u2019s \u201cgreen bonds\u201d since 2017, despite a consistently poor record of sewage pollution during that time, research has shown.<\/p>\n
Privately owned water companies in England<\/a> have together issued \u00a310.5bn in bonds tied to projects that offer \u201cenvironmental benefits\u201d, according to analysis of financial market data by Unearthed, which is part of Greenpeace UK.<\/p>\n Anglian Water has been the biggest issuer in the water industry, at \u00a33.5bn, with struggling Thames Water<\/a> second at \u00a33.1bn. The two companies were the third- and sixth-largest issuers of corporate green bonds overall since 2017.<\/p>\n Issuers of green bonds<\/a> are expected to use the proceeds for defined purposes such as renewable energy, greenhouse gas control and clean transportation such as electric vehicles. Sustainable water and wastewater management is also included. This means many water companies\u2019 standard operations qualify. In return, companies tend to be able to borrow more cheaply, because they attract investors hoping to benefit the environment while also profiting.<\/p>\n Yet the privatised water industry in England and Wales has faced persistent criticism<\/a> over its environmental record in recent decades, after years of alleged underinvestment and payment of large dividends<\/a> to shareholders.<\/p>\n The first green bond issued by a UK water company was in 2017, when Anglian, which supplies much of the east of England, raised \u00a3250m. However, the UK government\u2019s Environment Agency last month said environmental progress across the sector had declined<\/a> in the last year. Critics of the water industry said the poor performance raised questions over possible \u201cgreenwashing\u201d in relation to the bonds.<\/p>\n James Wallace, the chief executive of River Action, a clean water campaign group, said: \u201cThis is corporate greenwash on steroids. UK water companies are raising billions through green bonds while failing to deliver the environmental improvements these funds are supposed to support.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir crumbling infrastructure continues to kill rivers and put communities at risk while investors are rewarded. True green finance should deliver real benefits for the environment and public health, not mask ongoing pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n Water companies accounted for 19% of all corporate issuance between 2017 and 2025. If issuance by the Thames Tideway \u201csuper sewer\u201d developer is taken into account, that proportion rises to 22%.<\/p>\n Thames Water\u2019s effective owners are pushing for the government to grant it leniency on environmental standards for as long as 15 years<\/a> as part of a rescue plan. Unearthed also revealed that Thames has failed to publish impact reports detailing its bonds\u2019 environmental benefit for two years. Although not a legal requirement, the failure to publish the reports contravenes the industry standard.<\/p>\n The company said it was still committed to publishing the impact reports for its green bonds. A spokesperson said: \u201cThe impact report for 2022-23 and 2023-24, which will detail the allocation of the \u00a31.65bn raised through our January 2023 green bond issuance, has not yet been published. We take our reporting responsibilities seriously, and on this occasion we have fallen short of meeting expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Business Today<\/p>\n Get set for the working day \u2013 we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n An Anglian spokesperson said growing the economy while reducing pollution required \u201csignificant and sustained investment in infrastructure\u201d, adding that the funds raised \u201chelped to deliver significant environmental improvements\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know there is more still to do, particularly on issues like pollution, but environmental performance is broader than just that one measure,\u201d the spokesperson said, pointing to carbon emission reductions.<\/p>\n They said it was vital that the government create the conditions for an \u201cinvestable sector\u201d through regulatory reform.<\/p>\n Water UK, a lobby group for the industry, declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Water companies have issued a fifth of the UK\u2019s \u201cgreen bonds\u201d since 2017, despite a consistently poor record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-604061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115640760070012337","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}