Green Bonds: Between economic incentives and eco-change

Abstract

As the investor base committed to financing sustainable companies in an attempt to combat the climate crisis expands, green financial products have become more attractive to issuers, corporate and sovereign alike. As a result, the EU is attempting to create favourable market conditions which mobilise the allocation of private capital for investments that reduce the contribution to climate change. As part of the EU Commission’s Action Plan for Sustainable Finance, it intends to create Green Bond Standards which aim to support the transition to greener securities investments. As a foundation, we provide an overview of the green bond market development. We then consider investment challenges such as incentivisation and transparency and discuss whether the Green Bond Standards shall likely resolve these issues. Furthermore, we confer that enforceability of current green securities regulations is weak to non-existent and propose possible policy approaches which address these issues.