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We examine the impact and degree of compliance with Green Bond Principles (GBPs) on investor demand for Green Bonds (GBs) in G20 countries by employing cross‐sectional regression to analyse data over the period 2007–2016. After controlling for common bond‐specific and macroeconomic variables, we find a significant positive impact of higher compliance with principles on investor demand, as measured by bid‐ask spread and yield spread. We show that GBs issued by government institutions are able to minimise the adverse effects of low compliance with GBPs and the investor demand for fixed‐coupon GBs is higher than float‐coupon GBs.

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The COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented global health crisis, rapidly transferred into a global economic and social crisis. The pandemic has threatened the world’s commitment to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 as governments in developing countries have shifted their priorities from attaining SDGs, to providing urgent financial needs to save lives and prevent recession in hopes for a rapid economic recovery. The rerouting of public funding priorities has undermined the progress and achievement of SDGs. We employed a mixed-method and carried out a comparative study using pre- and post-public financial data of two developing countries in South Asia; Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. A threefold analysis was conducted to investigate the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in two countries, the impact of the pandemic on external and internal public finance and the effect of the pandemic in shifting the policy priorities from SDGs to economic survival. This study found that both countries are highly vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic and are suffering from the lack of financing from external sources through the private sector as well as an increasing foreign debt. There is mounting pressure on the fiscal balance in both countries.

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