Cry me a river: the drought that could herald misery in corporate bonds and sustainability

Send us Fan MailThe Rhine, which flows through Germany's industrial heartlands, is drying up and that could spell trouble for the corporate bond market.A number of industrial giants — investment grade bond issuers with around €66bn of debt between them — all of a sudden can no longer use the river in the ways they are used to.They are struggling to get materials in, carry out their processes and to ship their goods out. It is the second time the river has run low in just four years. The last time it was this low was over 100 years ago.We examine what the ramifications of this will be for the companies affected and their debt and for their suppliers and customers, but also whether this is a prime example of the true costs of failing to tackle environmental sustainability — perhaps the defining long term problem facing capital markets and society at large.