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Proposal for a regulation

Commission proposal for a European green bond standard

The European green bond standard (EUGBS) is a voluntary standard to help scale up and raise the environmental ambitions of the green bond market.

Details

Publication date
6 July 2021 (Last updated on: 6 July 2021)
Author
Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union

Description

The European green bond standard (EUGBS) is a voluntary standard to help scale up and raise the environmental ambitions of the green bond market. Establishing this standard was an action in the Commission’s 2018 action plan on financing sustainable growth and is part of the European green deal. It is based on the recommendations of the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance.

Once it is adopted by co-legislators, this proposed Regulation will set a gold standard for how companies and public authorities can use green bonds to raise funds on capital markets to finance such ambitious large-scale investments, while meeting tough sustainability requirements and protecting investors.

This will be useful for both issuers and investors of green bonds. For example, issuers will have a robust tool to demonstrate that they are funding legitimate green projects aligned with the EU taxonomy. And investors buying the bonds will be able to more easily assess, compare and trust that their investments are sustainable, thereby reducing the risks posed by greenwashing.

The new EUGBS will be open to any issuer of green bonds, including companies, public authorities, and also issuers located outside of the EU.

There are four key requirements under the proposed framework

  • Taxonomy-alignment: The funds raised by the bond should be allocated fully to projects that are aligned with the EU taxonomy
  • Transparency: Full transparency on how the bond proceeds are allocated through detailed reporting requirements
  • External review: All European green bonds must be checked by an external reviewer to ensure compliance with the Regulation and taxonomy alignment of the funded projects
  • Supervision by the European Securities Markets Authority (ESMA) of reviewers: External reviewers providing services to issuers of European green bonds must be registered with and supervised by the ESMA. This will ensure the quality of their services and the reliability of their reviews to protect investors and ensure market integrity

Documents

Files

6 JULY 2021
Proposal for a Regulation on European green bonds
English
(461.47 KB - HTML)
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