“Investment in sustainable technologies and infrastructure is needed more than ever. The climate urgency and the energy crisis in relation to the war in Ukraine are painfully highlighting EU weaknesses in this context. To guarantee the effective uptake by investors, it remains of the utmost importance to design an attractive, trustworthy and voluntary green bonds instrument, and it’s exactly what we tried to achieve with the European green bond standard”, said Christophe Hansen, MEP, EPP Group negotiator on the draft law, ahead of today’s vote in Parliament’s Committee on Economic Affairs.

Proposed by the European Commission, this official European green bond standard (EUGBS) is designed to give more clarity to both issuers and investors. For example, investors who buy the bonds will be able to more easily assess, compare and trust that their investments are sustainable.

“Today there are numerous of criteria defining what a sustainable bond could be, often very difficult to understand and to compare, and with players who have all too often abused this lack of transparency. With the European green bond standard, we want to create a benchmark. To be successful, these European green bonds must be easy to use for issuers and easy to analyse for potential investors. Because the investor’s confidence in the product is the best guarantee that the necessary investments will actually be made”, explained Christophe Hansen.

Published on the 28th February 2023