AFME welcomes EU Parliament’s compromise on EU Green Bonds Standard

16 May 2022

“Today’s agreement is a welcome step forward towards establishing an important element of the EU sustainable finance framework. On behalf of our members, AFME contributed with practical industry input for the GBS to support and strengthen the EU green bonds market...

Commenting on the agreement in the European Parliament today on the proposed EU Green Bond Standard (GBS), Oliver Moullin, Managing Director for Sustainable Finance at the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), said:

 

“Today’s agreement is a welcome step forward towards establishing an important element of the EU sustainable finance framework. On behalf of our members, AFME contributed with practical industry input for the GBS to support and strengthen the EU green bonds market.

 

“Consistently with the objective to establish a “gold standard” in the market, AFME welcomes that the compromise  maintains the voluntary nature of the standard, complementing existing market labels and allowing issuers to offer green bonds in line with other international standards to support the continued growth and efficiency of the green bond market.

 

“Looking ahead to the interinstitutional (trilogue) negotiations, in order to support the continued growth of ESG bond markets ­- which is particularly important in current market conditions - the co-legislators should focus on the following as they finalise the standard:

• Maintaining the focus of creating a voluntary standard for green bonds and not extending requirements to other types of instruments such as other bonds marketed as sustainable;
• Maintaining the link with the EU Taxonomy Regulation and avoiding duplicative requirements for transition plans; and
• Ensuring that the standard supports the development of green securitisation.”

AFME

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