"India has established itself as an early leader in Asia's nascent green bond market, with three India-based issuers coming to market in the third quarter(July-Sept)", Moody's senior Vice President Henry Shilling said in a statement.
"We expect India, along with China, to be a prominent driver of regional issuance in coming years, given ambitious targets on building out renewable energy capacity," Shilling said.
India has set a target of 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022.
Though down from Q2, Moody's expects issuance will pick up in the last quarter (October-December) and exceed USD 40 billion for the full year 2015.
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"Issuance continued to break new ground in the third quarter in terms of noteworthy and first-time transactions, such as the first green bond transaction by a Chinese issuer," Shilling said.
Moody's conclusions were contained in its just-released report on the global green bonds market -- 'Third Quarter Issuance Lags, but COP21-Linked Increase Is Likely.'
Investment-grade issuance continued to dominate in the third quarter but high-yield green bonds gained as a share of all Moody's-rated green bond transactions, it said.
Nearly 18 per cent of issuance in the third quarter was attributable to below-investment grade issuers, up from just 5 per cent in the second quarter, it added.
The July-September period also saw more standard-setting initiatives aimed at bolstering green bonds standards as well as issuance, it said.