Green Debt Is Adding Market Share Even as Returns Lagged

(Bloomberg) — Green bond issuance is holding up better than plain vanilla debt this year, down just 3% compared with a 19% drop for standard bonds, according to Bloomberg data.

The resilience is notable considering that green bonds underperformed traditional issues in each of the first six months, a trend that only reversed in July.

“Dedicated ESG deals have tended to have a higher level of over-subscription than conventional offerings,” said Susan Barron, global head of sustainable capital markets at Barclays Plc, one of the top 10 managers for such issuance since the start of 2019.