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The UK’s Green Gilt is Marketing Puff and a Pointless Distraction

The UK’s Green Gilt is Marketing Puff and a Pointless Distraction

The UK attracted a record £137 bln order book for its £10 bln Green Gilt. But what does the Green Gilt achieve? Its marketing puff. It may disguise how ill-considered and ultimately self-defeating the Government’s rush to looking green has been. No matter how well intentioned a Green Gilt is – its style over substance, papering over the cracks in a confused and contradictory long-term climate-change mitigation strategy.  

“Every decent con man knows a simple truth is more powerful than an elaborate lie..”

This morning: The UK attracted a record £137 bln order book for its £10 bln Green Gilt. But what does the Green Gilt achieve? Its marketing puff. It may disguise how ill-considered and ultimately self-defeating the Government’s rush to looking green has been. No matter how well intentioned a Green Gilt is – its style over substance, papering over the cracks in a confused and contradictory long-term climate-change mitigation strategy.  

It fills my heart with joy and makes me proud to be British that the UK Government just received £137 billion of orders for its debut Green Bond – a record historical amount for any UK bond or Green Bond. (US Readers… disinterested sarcasm alert.)

Investors were apparently tumbling over themselves to place orders, but I can’t say many will be surprised or disappointed when they got less than 7% of their order. The £10 bln Green Gilt due in 2033 (12 year) will pay a 0.875% and was priced to yield 0.8721%… which is a bit more than the comparable 11year bond was paying at the time….

The proceeds of the new Green Gilt will specifically be earmarked to support green projects including zero-emission transport and offshore wind projects. I don’t quite understand how the spending programme will actually work…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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