China's green bonds market booms with US$17.4b issuance

Renewables investment surged 160% from 2010-2015.

The government's ongoing support to the industry - in the form of ambitious renewables capacity targets, local government-mandated regulations and wide-ranging financial incentives on offer to renewables developers - has encouraged a huge amount of investment into China's renewables sector.

BMI said that renewable energy investment in China has surged by 160% between 2010 and 2015, totalling over USD100bn in 2015 - by far the largest amount of any country or region globally.

"We expect similarly robust levels of investment over the coming years, as the government continues to prioritise the expansion of renewable energy," BMI said.

Here's more from BMI:

Furthermore, there has been a marked rise in the issuance of green bonds over 2016, reportedly totalling USD17.4bn over the year.

This will help to boost the financing available for environmentally friendly projects - thus paving the way for investment into the renewable energy sector.

Interestingly, the impressive rise in renewable energy investment we have witnessed in China over the last five years comes in sharp contrast to investment dynamics in Europe and the US, where we've seen investment decrease (in Europe) and largely remain flat (in the US).

Environmental policy slippage in European markets and policy uncertainty with regards to federal tax credits in the US has contributed to wavering investment levels in these markets.

This aligns with our broader views regarding global environmental policy and our belief that the politics of climate change are shifting and Asian countries - notably China - are playing an increasingly active role in reaching and implementing international environmental agreements