Green bonds: EDF finances its low-carbon investments on the markets
Announced on 26 February 2026, this issue illustrates the use of green bonds to finance decarbonised generation.
On 26 February 2026, EDF announced the success of its multi-tranche senior green bond issue.
Green bonds are debt securities whose proceeds are allocated to projects meeting environmental criteria defined in advance and subject to specific reporting to investors.
For an electricity generator, this financing typically covers investment in low-carbon generation, the modernisation of existing facilities and the associated infrastructure.
The advantage of this format is twofold: it broadens the investor base to those whose management mandates impose environmental criteria, and it imposes on the issuer a discipline of traceability over the use of funds.
The scale of the requirements explains the use of these instruments: between the nuclear programme, renewed hydropower investment and renewables, the amounts to be raised far exceed operators' self-financing capacity.