With the European Green Deal, the European Commission sets Europe on a path to become climate neutral by 2050. Achieving this objective will require massive investments. Green bonds are a key tool to help channel funds towards green projects. There is a growing interest in this market but uncertainties remain for issuers and investors.

Our publication presents the accountancy profession’s views on how to strengthen confidence in the green bond market. In light of the upcoming European Union Green Bond Standard (EU GBS) proposal, we recommend to:

• establish a mandatory EU GBS to ensure it is consistently applied in the market
• set up a centralised European accreditation system for external assessment, building on existing national schemes and processes
• require reporting on green bonds and on actual environmental impact at regular intervals
• ensure third-party independent assurance is obtained on allocation and environmental reports
• align the EU GBS with the EU Taxonomy

The Romanian version of this paper is available below, and was originally published on CECCAR’s website.