The increasing importance of Green Bonds as instruments of Impact Investing: towards a new European Standardization

The paper analyses the principal characteristics of Green Bonds, a particular financial instrument of Impact Investing that is showing a rapidly growing market and that can offer new possibilities for investors who consider important ESG considerations. The author wants to point out the main critical aspects that characterize Green Bonds, regarding both the lack of clarity about what makes a bond “green” and the presence of too many ways of assessing the bond greenness. The work notices that an answer to these needs is now coming from the European Institutions, showing how their recent actions - the HLEG Final Report and the EC Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth (2018) – are filling up the existing gaps, representing important steps towards a new European standardization