As Europe is the largest issuer of green bonds, it was only natural that the EU would introduce the world's first standard defining green bonds.

This legal update outlines why the European Green Bond Regulation is important and what the requirements of this new standard are, which aim to promote sustainable investments and consistency between them.

The European Green Bond Regulation, approved in October last year, creates a voluntary standard for labelling bonds offered or listed in the EU as EU green bonds ( abbreviated as EuGB).

In 2022, green bonds issued within the EU had a total value of almost 230 billion US dollars, but available data show that they still only represent around 8.9 trillion euros of all bonds issued in the EU. To this end, supporting sustainable investments plays an important role in achieving the EU's carbon neutrality objective under the Green Deal. (Lexology.com, Christia-Lydia Kastellani, more at www.lexology.com)