Britain sold 10 billion pounds of its first "green" government bonds on Tuesday after attracting more than 100 billion pounds ($137 billion) of demand from investors, a record number showing the clamor for assets that can be marketed as good for the planet.
The focus will be on sale proceeds for projects such as clean energy and will help the British government highlight its green credentials before it hosts the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow in November.
Britain has lagged other European countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain in issuing this type of debt, in part due to concern that investors may want to raise interest rates to compensate for the relative shortfall in liquidity, but the launch of new gold bonds on Tuesday due in July 2033 represents the largest A single sale by a sovereign issuer, surpassing the previous record of 8.5 billion euros set by Italy in March.
Britain has said it aims to raise around 15 billion pounds in total from two "green" bond issuances this year. The Bank of England said it will buy green bonds as part of an asset purchase program and treat them like similar conventional bonds.
