Recommendation 8

We welcome the announcement in the 2021 Budget of a timetable for the issuance of the UK’s first green sovereign bond or ‘green gilt’. However, the UK is lagging behind other countries in the issuance of these green bonds. This runs the risk of holding back the development of a private sterling green bond market. Although concerns about the potential for green bonds to be a more expensive form of debt for the Government seem to have dissipated to a degree, the Government should none the less set out its tolerance, when issuing such bonds, for them to be more expensive than other forms of Government debt.