(28 February 2018 – Belgium) Belgium has issued a US$4.5bn sovereign green bond, becoming the third European country to do so and the second largest to come to market to date.
Belgium’s green bond follows on from Poland and France in Europe who issued their sovereign green bonds in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In 2017 Fiji became the first emerging market sovereign to issue a green bond, followed by Nigeria the same year.
As the pace of environmentally-labelled finance-raising picks up speed, a number of other sovereigns are working on green bonds which are set to come to market in the coming months.
Barclays, BNP Paribas Fortis, Credit Agricole, ING and JPMorgan advised on the issuance.