Green bonds present an increasingly essential role in financing assets needed for the low-carbon transition. Nonetheless, there is no systematic green bond standard inside the EU.
Creating and establishing such a standard was thus a recommendation in the final report of the Commission’s High-Level Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. The general aim of this public deliberation is to collect the views and opinions of interested parties to inform the establishment of an EU Green Bond Standard.
European Green Deal
This deliberation builds upon the European Green Deal, which significantly increases the EU’s climate action and environmental policy ambitions. To complement the Green Deal, the Commission also presented the European Green Deal Investment Plan, which seeks to mobilize at least €1 trillion in sustainable investments over the future decade. As part of the Green Deal and its investment plan, the Commission reaffirmed its engagement to create an EU Green Bond Standard.
The EU is acting in this regard and therefore three pieces of legislation presented in May 2018 will incentivize and channel private sector investment into green and sustainable development:
A unified EU Green Classification System – Taxonomy
To qualify as green, an investment would need to contribute to at least one of these six objectives:
Climate change mitigation
Climate change adaptation
Sustainable use of water and marine resources
Healthy ecosystem
Circular economy
Pollution prevention
Sustainability – related disclosures
Climate benchmarks and benchmark’s egg disclosures
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