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◆ Using the bond market to boost European security 
◆ Africa nears sovereign debt stabiliser 
◆ Sterling's ESG problem

With the new US government reasserting its belief that Europe needs to provide more of its own security this week, attention has turned once again to how to pay for it.

We discuss the various ideas in play, from setting up a new multilateral development bank to retooling existing SSA borrowers for the purpose, examining the pros and cons of each.

Meanwhile, the African Union may be about to bring to fruition a sovereign debt stability mechanism. Africa is the only continent without one and proponents believe it will ultimately bring down borrowing costs for issuers as well as offering an alternative source of ready capital in a crisis. We delve into how the entity will work.

Finally, we have been investigating why the UK bond market lags others when it comes to ESG labelled bonds and question whether the government and regulators should do more to encourage issuance.