FINANCING GREEN: REFORMING GREEN BOND REGULATION IN THE UNITED STATES

In recent years, green bonds have emerged as a way for the financial industry to contribute to environmentally friendly projects, combat climate change, and provide funds for green infrastructures across the world. While the green bond market has expanded drastically across large nations in Europe and Asia, market growth has stalled in the United States, in part due to a lack of promising regulations in the United States. Existing regulations on green bond issuance in the United States only exists in the form of non-binding international guidelines. This Note reviews the benefits and potentials of green bonds both as an investment tool and a tool for green growth, through the lens of existing international and domestic guidelines. This Note argues that for the green bond market to further expand in the United States, mandatory regulatory support must be imposed on bond issuers through the use of a tiered green bond system, mandated quarterly reports by bond issuers to investors, and imposition of stricter penalties for issuers who misuse the bond money