Sparklines
Sustainable Debt Is Piling Up—and for Good Reason
Green bonds have outperformed the market this year, but that's just the start.
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We’ve passed a major milestone in sustainable finance: one trillion dollars in issuance of green bonds. As of last quarter, companies, financial institutions, governments and municipalities raised more than $215 billion dollars in green bonds. That’s not far off the more than $270 billion raised in all of 2019, and it’s 15 times more than raised in all of 2013.
Yesterday, Good Business columnist Tim Quinson asked whether this might be a bubble. But a quick look at performance hints at one reason why green bonds are growing as they are—they’ve outpaced all other types of bonds so far in 2020, particularly since mid-July.