The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has today issued a comment welcoming the provisional agreement reached on the establishment of an EU Green Bonds standard.

Oliver Moullin, Managing Director, Sustainable Finance General Counsel of AFME, said: “We welcome that the agreement maintains the original objective of establishing a voluntary, science-based “gold standard” for bonds funding activities aligned with the EU Taxonomy.

“AFME research has shown that EU sustainable bond issuance is not immune to adversities and uncertainty in the market, and we believe that the establishment of an EU standard for green bonds based on the Taxonomy Regulation should complement existing market standards, further developing the market for environmentally sustainable bonds. To maximise the adoption of the standard, it is important that work continues to enhance the usability of the EU Taxonomy.”

“In turn, the usability of the Standard will largely depend on the degree of flexibility with the Taxonomy-alignment of proceeds, the treatment of green securitisation, and the grandfathering provisions. We thus look forward to seeing the details of the text agreed upon yesterday.”