FOUR YEARS OF BOND ISSUANCE IN EUROPE – EXPERT ANALYSES

In recent years, the European public sector has played a prominent role in scaling up the Green, Social, and Sustainable (GSS) bond market, reflecting both increasing investors’ demand for impact-driven instruments and strong policy support for sustainable finance.  

Issuers such as municipalities, regions, public services and development banks are leveraging GSS bonds to finance projects that address environmental and social challenges, ranging from renewable energy infrastructure to affordable housing and healthcare. And thus, in return, are positively impacting the development of sustainable finance.  

However, while GSS bonds are a key contribution to the development of this market, the quality itself of these issuances can differ. 

EthiFinance is regularly mandated by European public issuers for Second Party Opinions on their issuance frameworks and thus well positioned to investigate this issue. Our report presents the analysis of several dozens of frameworks published by local public issuers (states, local authorities, public services and public financial institutions) in Europe between 2021 and 2024 on the quality of the various issuance frameworks.  

The results of this research are clear: The quality of the public issuers’ frameworks has steadily improved in recent years, in terms both of accuracy and relevance. This increased transparency and an enhanced quality are key levers of confidence for investors.  

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