The UK government announced the completion of its latest “Green Gilt” offering, raising £6.25 billion (USD$8.4 billion) to help finance expenditures for projects to tackle climate change and other environmental challenges, including funding for infrastructure and the creation of green jobs.
The UK launched its Green Gilt program in 2021, along with plans to build a ‘green curve,’ a yield curve specifically for green bonds showing the yield of the bond against its maturity, highlighting the value of the sustainable characteristics of the bond. While 2033 and 2053 green bonds were issued in the first year of the program, the new bonds, with a 2037 date, marks the first new maturity Green Gilt to be launched since 2021.
Jessica Pulay, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Debt Management Office (DMO), said:
“I am extremely pleased with today’s £6.25 billion syndicated offering, which concludes the successful delivery of the UK government’s syndication programme for 2025-26. In addition, today’s bond, which matures in 2037, marks the launch of the UK’s third green gilt, representing the first new green gilt since October 2021, and one that underscores the UK government’s longstanding ambition to build out a green yield curve.”
The new bonds were also the first to be issued since the UK released its updated Green Financing Framework late last year, outlining the basis for identification, selection, verification and reporting of the green projects that are eligible for financing from the proceeds of the government’s green gilt programme and retail Green Savings Bonds.
The most significant change introduced under the updated framework was the introduction of nuclear energy-related expenditures to the list of eligible categories for allocation of green bond proceeds, adding to existing categories which include clean transportation, renewable energy, energy efficiency, pollution prevention and control, living and natural resources, and climate change adaptation.
Eligible nuclear expenditure areas under the new framework include support for the design, development, construction, commissioning, safe operation, lifetime extension, or supporting infrastructure of new or existing nuclear power generation assets, including enabling fuel cycle activities and radioactive waste and fuel storage, management and final disposal, as well as research and development for future fission and fusion technologies.
With the completion of the new offering, the UK has now raised £55.8 billion in green gilt offerings since the launch of the program in 2021. The DMO has set plans for £12 billion of green bonds in the 2026 – 2027 financial year, primarily through sales of the new 2037 green gilt.
Pulay added:
“Green gilt issuance supports the UK’s ambitious environmental and climate goals, and we have been impressed by the encouragement we have received from market participants following the publication of the government’s updated Green Financing Framework in November 2025.”
