Green OATs

• Presentation

• The Green OATs Evaluation Council

• Allocation and performance report

• Council evaluation report

• Green OAT video

Presentation

In June 2017, AFT launched the first green sovereign bond for a benchmark amount (initially €7 billion), the OAT 2039. By launching a second green bond in March 2021 (the OAT€i 0.50% 25 June 2044), followed by a third in May 2022 (the OAT€i 0.10% 25 July 2038), it is confirming France's leading role in achieving the ambitions set out in the Paris Climate Agreement of December 2015. In January 2024, Agence France Trésor announced the successful syndication of the fourth French sovereign green bond with a maturity of 25 years. The Green OAT 3.00% 25 June 2049 issuance amount at a yield of 3.201% reached an all-time high of €8 billion. A single framework document governs all these bonds and takes into account the specificities of the green indexed OATs.  

 After their inaugural issue, these securities are subject to reissue up to the limit of Eligible Green Expenditures each year.

 Each year, the funds raised by Green OAT issues are used to finance a set of green projects under the State budget to mitigate climate change and anticipate the associated risks, preserve biodiversity and fight pollution. Each year, the various ministries identify the expenditures in their budgets that match these objectives. These expenditures are submitted to the Green OAT Evaluation Council for its opinion, and then they are submitted for validation by an interministerial steering committee working under the aegis of the Prime Minister. Eligible green expenditure is also selected on the basis of its green budget rating, in line with the Greenfin label reference framework, created by the French Ministry for Ecological Transition to attest to the green credentials of investment funds.

 For accounting purposes, raised funds are treated in the same way as funds from a conventional OAT and managed in compliance with the general budget rule. The allocation and performance reports, drawn up every year on th basis of the Budget Review Bill, are used to verify the nominal equivalence between this source of funds and the uses matched to it. In August 2022, the fifth allocation and performance reports was published, presenting the expenditures matching the 2021 green debt issues. According to the same timetable, the report on the funds raised in 2022 will be published in the summer of 2023. Furthermore, in July 2022 the fifth environmental evaluation report on eligible expenditures for Green OATs was published, focusing on satellite observation of the Earth and on weather forecasts. In 2023, the Council evaluate the public support to renewable energies. These evaluations contribute to effective steering of public policy and constitute one of the contributions of Green OATs.

Framework for the Green OATs

Annex to the framework for the Green OATs (May 2022)

July 2024 - Update of the second party opinion on the French Republic's Green OAT by Moody's ESG Solutions (Elegible Green Expenditures 2023 ex post)

The Green OATs Evaluation Council

The Green OATs Evaluation Council is chaired by Manuel Pulgar-Vidal and its members are eight independent experts:

• Mats Andersson, Vice-Chairman of the Global Challenges Foundation, Chairman of PDC and former CEO of AP4, Sweden’s fourth national pension fund;
• Nathalie Girouard, Head of the Environmental Performance and Information Division of the Environment Directorate at the OECD;
• Mike Holland, independant consultant ;
• Karin Kemper, Senior Director for the Environment and Natural Resources Global Practice at the World Bank;
• Rana Roy, independant consultant ;
• Thomas Sterner, Professor of Environmental Economics at the University of Gothenburg;

Two observers also take part in the Council:

• Sean Kidney, co-founder and CEO of the Climate Bond Initiative;
• Nicolas Pfaff, Senior Director and Secretary to the Green Bond Principles, ICMA (International Capital Market Association).

The Green OATs Evaluation Council defines the specifications and schedule for evaluation reports on the environmental impact of Green Eligible Expenditures financed by France’s green sovereign bond. The Council also gives its opinion on the quality of the evaluation reports and the impact and relevance of the findings. All of its work is published on the Agence France Trésor website. The Secretariat of the Green OATs Evaluation Council is provided jointly by the General Commission for Sustainable Development and the Directorate General of the Treasury.

Allocation and performance report

Green OAT allocation and performance report for 2023

Green OAT allocation and performance report for 2022

Green OAT allocation and performance report for 2021

Green OAT allocation and performance report for 2020

Green OAT allocation and performance report for 2019

Green OAT allocation and performance report for 2018

Green OAT allocation and performance report for 2017

Council evaluation reports

Learn more about the green OAT

(video only available in French)