The financing of the energy transition by issuing green bonds has reached a fresh milestone now that France, a prominent proponent of climate change mitigation and environmental protection efforts, has issued the largest and longest green bond to date.
Already a leader in the development of green finance, France launched, on 25/01/17, a EUR 7 billion, 22-year Green OAT government bond, marking the first sovereign benchmark issue in the market for green bonds and underscoring the country’s role as a driving force in the implementation of the December 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Institutional investors including asset managers, banks, pension funds and insurers figured among the roughly 200 buyers of the bond, illustrating the keen interest among such investors to support the transition to a low-carbon economy – not least from a fiduciary perspective. Reflecting the interest, bids for the French bond exceeded EUR 23 billion.
Green bonds are – like plants in spring – burgeoning. Read more about them here.
