Our blue bond

Supporting renewable energy resilience and ocean stewardship with a meaningful financial instrument

In June 2023, Ørsted became the first energy company in the world to issue a blue bond – a five-year EUR 100 million private placement.

Net proceeds from the bond are directed towards projects that contribute to the development and scaling of ocean-based renewable energy solutions and support ocean health and marine biodiversity.

Specifically, the blue bond finances activities aligned with the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Guidelines for Blue Finance, focusing on marine ecosystem restoration and sustainable shipping. It also serves as an example of our work to champion the UN Global Compact and UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative’s Ocean Investment Protocol (OIP), for which we’re a proud knowledge partner.

We also seek to bridge the ‘blue finance gap’ by promoting blue bonds as a meaningful financial instrument that can help drive both economic growth and broader ocean stewardship across the private sector.

Four project areas

Some projects financed by Ørsted’s blue bond are already delivering measurable impact. Others are in the early stages of development or primarily yield qualitative benefits. The projects cover four main areas:

Research and monitoring using advanced tools such as LiDAR surveys, GPS tagging, and acoustic monitoring to build crucial understanding of species and eco systems health.

Mitigation actions that reduce construction impacts such as the use of low-noise installation technologies, with impact measured in decibel (dB) mitigated.

Ecosystem restoration, including biogenic reefs, seagrass meadows, salt marshes, and mangroves, with progress measured by the area restored.

Species restoration, including coral growth and artificial nesting sites for seabirds, with impact tracked by the number of individuals or nesting pairs supported.

As the blue bond is a private placement, the full impact report – including detailed allocation of net proceeds – is available solely to our investors. However, we have published a summary of the impacts achieved through our blue bond, which you can access here.

Summarised Blue Bond Impacts 2025

This summary of Ørsted’s Blue Bond Impact Report 2025 explains our sustainability ambitions, the purpose of our blue bond, the impact of blue bond-financed projects, how we measure and manage impact, and our accounting policy.

Get the details here

Blue financing

Explore blue financing at Ørsted – including how we define it, how our blue-bond capital is allocated between biodiversity projects and sustainable shipping, and how we track and communicate the impact of the Ørsted blue bond.

Explore here

Blue bond press release

For additional information about our blue bond issue, please refer to “Ørsted becomes world’s first energy company to issue blue bonds,” the press release we issued in June 2023 announcing this innovative financing initiative.

See the press release here

Biodiversity Measurement Framework

The first of its kind in the energy industry, our Biodiversity Measurement Framework distils a wide range of complex sustainability standards, local regulations, and cross-sector initiatives into a single practical tool. Read more about it here.

Biodiversity pilots

Discover how our portfolio of pilot projects is helping us test new ideas, refine methods, and learn what works in practice with our facilities. They also offer a glimpse into the future, as the most promising projects will be considered for scaling and broader implementation.

Decarbonisation

We met our target of reducing the intensity of our scope 1 and 2 emissions by 98% from 2006 to 2025 – and are now tackling scope 3 emissions from sales of gas and our supply chain. All this will help us meet our 2040 net-zero target for greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more here.

Three technicians in front of the building

Community impact

It is our position that Ørsted projects should benefit the communities where we operate. We want to be a positive force, and we depend on good relations and trust to succeed with our projects. Discover how we’re living up to this responsibility in communities around the world.