The European Commission is proposing a regulation to create the European Green Bond Standard, which would refer to the detailed rules of the EU Taxonomy to define what is considered a green investment. The European Green Bond Standard would be available to different types of bond issuers — including issuers of covered bonds — on a voluntary basis. One of the qualifications for the Standard is that the funds raised by the bond should be allocated 100% to projects aligned with the EU Taxonomy.
The Commission has high ambitions for the European Green Bond Standard. The overall aim is to create a ‘gold standard’ that other market standards can be compared to and potentially seek to align with.