Netherlands Set to Be First AAA-Rated Nation to Issue Green Bond

(Bloomberg) -- The Netherlands will become the first country with a AAA credit rating to issue a green bond with the sale of a 20-year security next month.

The nation will sell up to 6 billion euros ($6.75 billion) of debt maturing in 2040 via an auction, with the proceeds being allocated to green or climate-related expenditures by the government, according to the Dutch Treasury. The Netherlands will become the latest European state to tap investor interest in credit that helps limit harmful emissions, with Poland the first in 2016, followed by France, Belgium and Ireland.

The nation's ambition is to issue a so-called dark green bond, Dutch Minister of Finance Wopke Hoekstra said, referring to debt that finances expenditure to lower carbon emissions in the long run. The Netherlands wants “to give an extra boost to the Dutch green capital market,” he said.

A cumulative $580 billion of green bonds were sold through 2018, and another $170 billion to $180 billion are likely to be sold this year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Dutch bonds have rallied this year, with yields dropping close to zero percent, supported by investor demand for havens amid slowing economic growth and political risks, such as Brexit. Ten-year yields were at 0.09 percent as of 12:33 p.m. London time Monday.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Ainger in London at jainger@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ven Ram at vram1@bloomberg.net, Scott Hamilton, Anil Varma

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