The excitement began on a crisp January morning in 2025 when A2A – a major Italian multi-utility company – issued Europe’s very first bond under the new EuGBS. Just a couple of months later, the momentum reached another level with the EIB’s inaugural €3 billion green bond under the same standard, the largest to date1. These were not just big deals on paper; they carried profound symbolism. Bond after bond, they signalled that Europe’s ambitious green finance standards were practicable. And behind the scenes, Euroclear’s teams were working diligently to ensure these transactions, under a brand-new rulebook, went off without a hitch.
Driving Europe’s new ESG gold standard with Euroclear
In early 2025, a quiet progression unfolded in Europe’s capital markets. For the first time, bonds were issued under the European Union’s new European Green Bond Standard (EuGBS) – a framework being hailed as the ESG ‘gold standard’ for green finance1. This was no ordinary financial news. It marked a milestone in the quest to channel more investment into truly sustainable projects, with the Italian utility A2A and the European Investment Bank (EIB) leading the way. As someone with a front-row seat, I would like to share how Euroclear helped make these pioneering transactions possible and why we at Euroclear felt proud to see them succeed.
What exactly is this new standard that has sustainable finance circles buzzing? The EuGBS is a voluntary EU regulation that became applicable at the end of 20241. It was designed to set a ‘gold standard’ for green bonds – meaning only the strictest, most transparent green bonds can earn this label. Under the EuGBS framework, issuers must align the bond’s proceeds fully with the EU Taxonomy and adhere to rigorous reporting and disclosure requirements1,2. The EU Taxonomy is being used as a guideline by other jurisdictions, seeking to create more commonality with the leading green bond market in order to foster cross-border sustainable capital flows – yet another proof of Europe’s green finance leadership.
In short, this is a continuation and expansion on the theme behind the creation of the ICMA Green Bond Principles, if a bond carries the European Green Bond (EuGB) label, investors can trust and be confident the money raised will genuinely support green projects, with full clarity about the use of proceeds.
Some key features of the EU’s gold-standard green bonds include
- Strict use of proceeds: 85% of the funds must meet all the criteria set out in the EU Taxonomy i.e., green projects, like renewable energy or clean transport1,3. This ensures a high level of environmental integrity. Article 5 provides some flexibility regarding Taxonomy requirements allowing issuers to allocate up to 15% of the proceeds to economic activities that comply with the technical requirements – essentially giving issuers a ‘flexible pocket’ for certain economic activities.4
- Transparency and reporting: Issuers must publish an in-depth Green Bond Factsheet before issuance and commit to regular allocation and impact reports until the funds are fully used. All this information is subject to external review, giving investors a clear line of sight into how their money is making a difference.
- External verification: A qualified, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)-accredited, independent reviewer must sign off that the bond meets the EuGBS criteria.
- Voluntary but influential: It is important to note that using the EuGBS label is entirely optional – issuers can still issue green bonds without it, but because of its strict standards, it is widely viewed as the new ‘gold standard’ benchmark for green bonds1. The hope is that, over time, it will further harmonise market practices and boost investor confidence across the green bond market.
The regulation setting up EuGBS came into effect on 21 December 20242, so when 2025 dawned, it was not just the start of Trump 2.0, but the inflection point to see who would seize the initiative and issue the first bonds under this new framework. There was both excitement and a bit of trepidation in the market. Would investors embrace these more tightly regulated green bonds? Would issuers find the compliance burden worth it? As it turns out, the early results could not have been more encouraging.
A2A lights the way
On 23 January 2025, in Milan, A2A S.p.A. made history with the first-ever EuGBS-aligned bond by a European corporate issuer3. A2A, known for its work in energy transition and circular economy, had been preparing to align with the new standard. Still, being the trailblazer was a bold move. The company issued a €500 million green bond with a 10-year maturity – and because it adhered to the new EU standard, it was the first to earn the official ‘European Green Bond’ label.
What happened next was a resounding vote of confidence from investors. Demand surged far beyond the €500m A2A was seeking to raise. By the time books closed, orders totalled about €2.2 billion, implying the bond was roughly 4.4 times oversubscribed3. In practical terms, this means investors were excitedly seeking to own a part of this bond. In fact, A2A did not have to offer any new issue premium at all and the bond performed strongly in secondary trading2.
Why such enthusiasm? It appears investors were reassured by the integrity of both the issuer and the EuGBS label. A2A had committed to use the proceeds exclusively for EU Taxonomy-aligned projects – and even chose not to use the small 15% ‘flexibility pocket’ that the new rules allow for non-taxonomy projects2. In other words, every euro raised from the sale of this bond will go into green initiatives contributing substantially to environmental objectives, doing no significant harm to any environmental objective, and meeting minimum (social) safeguards, in alignment with the EU Taxonomy. According to A2A, the funds would finance projects like renewable energy installations, upgrading electricity grids, improving energy efficiency and enhancing waste management infrastructure2 – exactly the kind of investments crucial for both Italy’s and Europe’s energy and ecological transition. Seeing that 100% of the projects are within scope of the new EU standard gave investors a lot of confidence.
For A2A, this issuance marked a new step in its Sustainable Finance journey, which began in 2019 with its first Green Bond. Since then, the Group has become a frequent issuer in the ESG format (both use-of-proceeds and sustainability-linked), bringing the share of sustainable debt to over 80%. The company has consistently followed best market practices in project selection (using the EU Taxonomy related criteria starting from 2021), allocation reporting and its external verification. To meet the EuGBS requirements, A2A had to follow a more standardised approach based on the EU regulation, publishing a detailed Green Bond Factsheet at issuance and committing to report on how the money is spent using the specific templates provided.3 This level of transparency is a step above the usual market practice and it sets a benchmark precedent. A2A’s Head of Finance and Insurance, Patricia Gentile, noted that this inaugural EU Green Bond not only furthers A2A’s sustainability goals but also cements the company’s role as a ‘reference’ in sustainable finance, helping achieve its target of 100% sustainable funding sources by 2035. Indeed, by launching this new product, A2A demonstrated that even a commercial company can meet the EU’s gold standard and benefit from it.
EIB’s €3 billion Climate Awareness Bond
If A2A’s deal ‘broke the ice’, then the EIB’s inaugural EuGBS bond was the moment the floodlights came on. The EIB is no newcomer to green bonds – it actually issued the world’s first green bond, a Climate Awareness Bond, back in 2007.1 As the EU’s designated development bank, the EIB has a mandate to drive sustainable investment and it has been at the forefront of green finance for over a decade. Still, even for the EIB, aligning with the brand-new EU standard was a significant milestone.
On 2 April 2025, the EIB launched its first EuGBS-aligned issue: a €3 billion Climate Awareness Bond maturing in 2037.5 This was by far the largest EuGBS bond to date – six times the size of A2A’s deal – and, notably, the first EuGBS issuance by a supranational institution and a triple-A-rated issuer. The reaction from the market was nothing short of astonishing. Investors placed orders exceeding €40 billion for this €3 billion bond1. In other words, the issue was more than 13 times oversubscribed, a record-breaking level of demand. To put that in perspective, for every €1 available, 13 investors were willing to buy it. This overwhelming interest allowed EIB to price the bond very efficiently and still leave plenty of investors wanting more. As was the case with the A2A issuance, Euroclear once again played a key role in facilitating and supporting the primary issuance.
Such a blockbuster outcome sent an unmistakable signal: bonds issued under the EU’s Green Bond standard continue to have huge investor appeal. Sceptics who initially fretted that the EuGBS might be too strict or limit the investor base were proved wrong – at least at this stage of the EuGBS’ adoption. The EIB’s President, Nadia Calviño, commented that this transaction brought EIB’s hallmark “quality, transparency and increased scale” to the new European Green Bond framework, illustrating that even under tougher rules, you can achieve massive scale in funding.5 For those of us watching at Euroclear, it was a stunning sight, reflecting a surge of trust in these high-quality green instruments.
For the EIB, the successful issue was the culmination of years of progress to this stage. The bank had been moving in this direction for some time – aligning its internal frameworks with the evolving EU sustainable finance legislation. By 2022, EIB had ensured that all taxonomy-eligible projects financed by its green bonds met the EU Taxonomy’s criteria for substantial contribution to climate goals1. It had also started reporting in line with expected EuGBS norms, so transitioning to the official EuGBS was the next logical step1. As Aldo Romani, EIB’s Head of Sustainable Finance and a pioneer of the 2007 green bond, put it: “This transaction – our first climate awareness bond aligned with the EuGBS – continues the strategy we began in 2007 when we brought the first green bond to the market. The main motivation... was and still is to create a framework for higher transparency and accountability, allowing investors to monitor the flow of EIB’s disbursements for green projects.1” In essence, the EIB sees the EuGBS as the natural next chapter in a story it started long ago, enhancing transparency and trust in how green funds are used.
Beyond achieving its own funding goals, the EIB had a broader objective: to set an example for other borrowers. By cracking the EuGBS code, EIB hoped to provide a template that other public sector borrowers and corporate issuers could follow.1 This leadership role is something the EIB consciously embraces – it aims to be ‘the EU’s climate bank.’ Indeed, by demonstrating that a complex, multi-sector institution can issue a taxonomy-aligned bond at scale, EIB gave confidence to many of its peers considering the EuGBS route. Already, we saw that others were following suit. In just the first months since coming into effect, we have seen €20 billion of EuGB issued so far today by 21 issuers – including Denmark – all successfully issuing EuGBS bonds. That diversity sends a powerful message that the new standard is workable across the board.
It is worth noting that, originally, not everyone was so optimistic. In the early days of policy discussions, some market participants worried the EuGBS would set the bar ‘too high’ and that few issuers would embrace it.1 There were even voices calling it a missed opportunity if it ended up too exclusive. Now, thanks to pioneer borrowers like A2A and EIB, those fears are easing. The EIB’s deal, in particular, proved that the gap between the traditional market practices (like the well-established ICMA Green Bond Principles) and the EU’s new standard is not as wide as many thought. In fact, EIB showed that if you were already doing robust green bond reporting, moving to EuGBS is a next step in that evolution. This real-world ‘proof of concept’ provided by EIB is likely to encourage more issuers to try for the gold standard themselves and Euroclear is there to provide the appropriate infrastructure to do so.
Now, let’s pull back the curtain on the part of the story that is not often told in press releases –the behind-the-scenes mechanics. The question I am often asked is: What role did Euroclear actually play in these issuances? The short answer is that Euroclear, as an International Central Securities Depository (ICSD), is the invisible yet essential pipeline that ensured these bonds were accessible to, and reached, the targeted investors smoothly, efficiently and safely. When you hear that a €3 billion bond was issued and settled, it is Euroclear (together with our peer infrastructure) doing the heavy lifting of moving securities and cash between dozens of banks and investors around the world and we all know that price is driven by volumes and our reach is truly global.
Both the A2A and EIB green bonds were issued as Eurobonds – meaning they were cross-border bonds issued into the international capital market. Eurobonds like these are issued directly through the ICSDs, i.e. Euroclear Bank and Clearstream Banking. In fact, one telltale sign is their ISIN codes – such as the EIB’s EU ISIN EU000A3K4EG9 – indicating they are fixed income products issued in the ICSD model. The system was the hub through which all the investors in Asia, Europe and America received their bonds on settlement day using us as their trusted infrastructure provider.
From the very start of these transactions, Euroclear’s expertise has been engaged. In a Eurobond issuance, our role involves working with the issuer’s chosen agents and underwriting/arranging banks to set up the issue in our system, allocate the securities and ensure true delivery-versus-payment settlement. In simple terms, we make sure that when the bond issue date arrives, investors get their bonds and the issuer gets their money, with all legal ownership records updated in a blink. This process has to be impeccably reliable and the Eurobond market continues to live up to that market demand – any hiccup could undermine market confidence, especially for a first-of-its-kind instrument.
For the EuGBS bonds, there were a few additional layers of coordination compared to a plain vanilla bond. For one, there was the matter of new documentation. EuGBS issuers such as A2A and EIB had new paperwork (such as the EuGBS Factsheet and post-issuance reporting commitments). While these are largely handled by issuers and their appointed legal teams, at Euroclear we needed to ensure that our systems could reference and accommodate these new disclosures. Essentially, we made sure that the EuGBS label integrates seamlessly into the existing workflow – so that, from a settlement perspective, an investor would not notice any difference. Buying and settling an EIB EuGBS-aligned Climate Awareness Bond felt the same as any other EIB bond – and that is a good thing, because it means no friction. The significant changes are in the front-end transparency, not in the back-end plumbing.
Communication was another part of the facilitation. As Euroclear, we serve a global network of financial institutions that might have questions whenever something new or innovative comes along. We proactively provided clarity to participants about how these EuGBS bonds would be handled. The good news was that our infrastructure did not need a revolution – the fundamental processes of Eurobond clearing and settling are robust and flexible enough to handle instruments as long as we know their characteristics. And since these bonds follow the standard format of Eurobonds in terms of issuance mechanics, we did not have to reinvent the wheel; we just ensured all references to their green nature were properly in place.
Euroclear’s contribution might not make newspaper headlines, but it is critical for turning ambitious plans into reality. Without a reliable post-trade infrastructure, even the best-conceived financial instrument can stumble. In the case of the EU’s gold standard green bonds, we ensured the trust and efficiency that market participants expect. Investors could commit billions of euros with confidence because they trust and rely on an infrastructure like Euroclear, knowing we will safeguard their assets and carry out their trades reliably. In essence, we provided the bedrock of trust under these pioneering deals. Trust is more important than ever these days, because these deals are all about showing the world that green finance can be done right.
The success of A2A’s and EIB’s inaugural EuGBS bonds is not just a one-off triumph; it heralds a new chapter for sustainable finance in Europe and hopefully will ripple outwards to the wider international capital markets. A chapter in which high-standard green finance moves from niche to mainstream. These early deals have proven that the EuGBS is workable and attractive: issuers can meet the criteria and investors will enthusiastically support those bonds.
What can we expect going forward? Likely, many more issuers will follow in these footsteps. Other companies and banks are surely watching and learning from A2A’s experience as the first corporate issuer. Agencies and municipalities will take heart from the examples of Île-de-France Mobilités and Community of Madrid. And the EIB’s larger-than-life success may inspire their peer institutions – perhaps even sovereign governments – to consider labelling their bonds with the EuGBS to reach that eager investor base. The next step, which we have now seen, is for a European sovereign – in this case Denmark – coming to market with a EuGB bond. With each new issuance, the processes will become more familiar, the investor comfort will grow and the sustainable projects funded will multiply. This constructive view is shared by Tomomitsu Maruta, Sustainable Finance Officer at the EIB and directly engaged in the structuring of the Bank’s EuGBS-aligned Climate Awareness Bond: “The glass is neither half empty nor half full, we are filling it up. Last year, most were pessimistic about the uptake of the EuGBS. In the first 9 months of this year, 13 issuers have already applied the standard to 14 bonds and 4 more already published pre-issuance factsheets. These trades are just the tip of the iceberg. There is a wave of gradual alignment with the EuGBS that is boosting the market with increasing standardisation. Our experience demonstrates great synergies between the Green Bond Principles and the EuGBS.”
At Euroclear, we are ready and eager to support this green bond evolution. In fact, every successful EuGBS issuance makes our job easier the next time around and instils further confidence in the Eurobond model – because it builds a proven track record and routine. Whether it is a €300 million mid-sized corporate green bond or a €5 billion sovereign green bond that comes next, the machinery to distribute and settle these securities is in place and battle tested. Our message to issuers is: when you aim for the gold standard, Euroclear will make sure the nuts and bolts are taken care of. You focus on the green projects. We’ll handle the associated mechanics of primary distribution and settlement smoothly.
The story of Euroclear and the EIB’s inaugural EuGBS bond (with a hearty nod to A2A’s pioneering step) is a story of partnership and progress. It shows how regulators, issuers, investors and market infrastructure can collaborate to raise the bar for what ‘good’ looks like in finance. The EU set the framework, eager issuers put in the work to meet it, investors gave their trust and capital and Euroclear and others provided the reliable connections to tie it all together. Together, we turned the abstract idea of a ‘gold standard’ green bond into a tangible success.
As we move forward, I am confident that this is just the beginning. The first green bonds under the EU standard have been issued, but many more chapters and innovative deals will follow – each directing more funds into sustainable development. Years from now, we may look back on that winter of 2025 as the moment Europe’s sustainable finance ambitions leapt ahead. I will always know that Euroclear played a small but crucial part in that leap. One bond at a time, we are helping to write a new narrative – where finance supports sustainability with credibility and heart. It is an exciting time to be in this field, and I, for one, am thrilled to see what’s next.
