One of the surprising casualties of Covid-19 has been green bonds. Despite the renewed focus on sustainability and record issuance of ordinary bonds, green bond volumes have tumbled. For the full year, they could be as much as a third lower than the record $258bn issued in 2019, according to Moody’s.

After years of strong growth this is a startling reverse. So is it the bursting of a bubble? Probably not. Bankers say that much of the issuance of ordinary bonds has been driven by the need for emergency liquidity to ride out the Covid-19 downturn rather than the longer-term financing of specific projects that is typical of green bond issues.