LONDON: European green government bond issuance reached almost 11 billion euros in the third quarter, marking its highest quarterly issuance to date, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) said on Thursday.

The first green bonds from Germany and Hungary, alongside further green bond sales from France, Ireland and Belgium, have helped boost the supply of Europe’s green sovereign bonds in recent months.

According to AFME’s Q3 European market data update, the outstanding amount of green government bonds has now surpassed 60 billion euros, with 10.8 billion euros issued in the third quarter.

AFME said the EU SURE bond issuance worth 17 billion euros had boosted the supply of social bonds, alongside a sustainable bond issued by Luxembourg.

“Total amount of outstanding ESG bonds (including bonds labelled green, social or sustainable) has reached EUR 80 bln as a result,” AFME said in its report.—Reuters