World bond market sets quarterly record after boom in first-half activity
The world’s green bond market hit a record quarterly high in the last three months, as investor appetite in environmental assets picked up pace.
Issuers brought $66.6bn (£54.8bn) of green bonds to market globally in the second quarter of 2019, propelling issuance in the first half of the year and shattering records.
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Growth in green bonds, which are typical defined investment products created to boost the development of renewable energy projects that tackle carbon emissions, has been led by European issuers.
First-half issuance was 47 per cent higher than the same period of 2018, compared against an 11 per cent year-over-year rise in the previous year, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service.
“The green bond market remains on course to eclipse our 2019 forecast of $200bn of total issuance,” said Moody’s analyst Matthew Kuchtyak.
Corporates were the strongest contributors to overall green bond issuance in the second quarter, with $14.9bn of non-financial corporate issuance and $13.6bn of financial corporate issuance accounting for 22 per cent and 20 per cent of total volume respectively.
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European issuers accounted for a leading 54 per cent of total issuance, driven by the large debut $6.7bn sovereign green bond from the government of the Netherlands.