Department of Finance Canada said Canada priced its sixth Canadian-dollar-denominated green bond, raising $2 billion through a new 10-year offering.
The final order book was more than $3.4 billion, meaning investor demand exceeded the amount issued. Finance Canada said environmentally and socially responsible investors represented 59 per cent of buyers.
The issuance brought total federal green bonds issued since March 2022 to $17.5 billion.
Green bonds are debt instruments whose proceeds are allocated to eligible green expenditures. For a sovereign issuer, they can also provide a benchmark for other sustainable-finance borrowers in the domestic market.
Finance Canada said the bonds are backed by Canada's AAA credit rating. That means investors are lending to the federal government, while the green label relates to the use of proceeds rather than a different legal borrower.
The release also noted that Canada updated its Green Bond Framework in November 2023 to include certain nuclear energy expenditures.
The green label does not change the borrower: investors are still lending to the federal government. The distinction is that proceeds are allocated to eligible environmental, infrastructure, and climate-related expenditures under the green-bond framework.