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LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Gröna obligationer - en grön gråzon

Forssblad, Karolina LU (2020) JURM02 20202
Department of Law
Faculty of Law
Abstract
In order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate goals, to limit global warming to well below 2 °C, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a transition from carbon-intensive to low-emission investments is needed. Green bonds have been identified as an important instrument to achieve the transition since green bonds can provide a long-term debt capital to low-emission projects by directly finance or refinance specific assets through the capital markets. Green bonds are not specifically defined and are currently regulated by the free market. Issuers of green bonds mainly use voluntary guidelines that constitute a standard used within the green bond market. The market’s self-regulation has favored the growth and impact of... (More)
In order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate goals, to limit global warming to well below 2 °C, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a transition from carbon-intensive to low-emission investments is needed. Green bonds have been identified as an important instrument to achieve the transition since green bonds can provide a long-term debt capital to low-emission projects by directly finance or refinance specific assets through the capital markets. Green bonds are not specifically defined and are currently regulated by the free market. Issuers of green bonds mainly use voluntary guidelines that constitute a standard used within the green bond market. The market’s self-regulation has favored the growth and impact of green bonds. However, an unestablished standard for green bonds provides for certain problems and thus high demands on transparency, trust, reporting and verification is placed on the issuer.

The green bond market is facing a regulatory change as EU has adopted a new regulation, the EU Taxonomy Regulation for sustainable activities, which is a classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities. It is expected to create security for companies and investors to plan the transition from carbon-intensive to low-emission investments and make well-informed decisions about sustainable investments. The EU Taxonomy Regulation will be in force from 1 January 2022 and may involve a stricter assessment of which financial instruments are permitted to be labeled as “green” products and thus may affect the classification of green bonds. Based on the investors' perspectives the thesis aims to analyze which criteria’s must be met for a bond to be classified as “green”. The purpose is also to analyze how the EU Taxonomy Regulation may affect the classification of green bonds. The thesis also intends to analyze whether an investor can claim damages for the use of proceeds in regards to green bonds when the use of proceeds is used in other ways than stated in the prospectus. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
För att uppnå Parisavtalets klimatmål att begränsa den globala uppvärmningen till under 2 grader, samt sträva efter att begränsa ökningen till under 1,5 grader Celsius, krävs en omställning till klimatmässiga och hållbara finansieringar med låga utsläpp. En finansieringsform som har pekats ut för att så långt som möjligt uppnå Parisavtalet och klara omställningen att förflytta kapital mot mer hållbara investeringar är gröna obligationer. I dagsläget regleras gröna obligationer av den fria marknaden, då det råder en avsaknad av lagstadgade regleringar. Emittenter som emitterar gröna obligationer förhåller sig främst till frivilliga riktlinjer som utgör standard på den gröna obligationsmarknaden. Marknadens självreglering har gynnat... (More)
För att uppnå Parisavtalets klimatmål att begränsa den globala uppvärmningen till under 2 grader, samt sträva efter att begränsa ökningen till under 1,5 grader Celsius, krävs en omställning till klimatmässiga och hållbara finansieringar med låga utsläpp. En finansieringsform som har pekats ut för att så långt som möjligt uppnå Parisavtalet och klara omställningen att förflytta kapital mot mer hållbara investeringar är gröna obligationer. I dagsläget regleras gröna obligationer av den fria marknaden, då det råder en avsaknad av lagstadgade regleringar. Emittenter som emitterar gröna obligationer förhåller sig främst till frivilliga riktlinjer som utgör standard på den gröna obligationsmarknaden. Marknadens självreglering har gynnat tillväxten och genomslagskraften av gröna obligationer. En oetablerad standard för gröna obligationer medför emellertid viss problematik och därför ställs höga krav på transparens, förtroende, rapportering och verifiering på emittenten.

Branschen står inför en förändring då EU har antagit en ny förordning om en EU-omfattande ”grön taxonomi” som ska underlätta för företag och investerare att fatta välinformerade beslut om hållbara investeringar, den så kallade taxonomiförordningen. EU:s taxonomiförordning börjar delvis att tillämpas från den 1 januari 2022 och kan komma att innebära en strängare bedömning av vilka finansiella instrument som tillåts marknadsföras som ”gröna” produkter och kan således komma att påverka klassificeringen av gröna obligationer. Med utgångspunkt i investerares perspektiv avser uppsatsen redogöra för vilka kriterier som ska vara uppfyllda för att en obligation ska klassificeras grön samt undersöka hur EU:s taxonomiförordning kan komma att påverka klassificeringen av gröna obligationer. Uppsatsen avser även analysera huruvida en investerare kan yrka skadestånd om emissionslikviden för gröna obligationer används på annat sätt än angivet i prospektet. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Forssblad, Karolina LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Green bonds - a green gray zone
course
JURM02 20202
year
type
H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
subject
keywords
kapitalmarknadsrätt, EU-rätt, skadeståndsrätt, gröna obligationer, EU:s taxonomiförordning, prospektansvar
language
Swedish
id
9034623
date added to LUP
2021-02-04 12:03:26
date last changed
2021-02-04 12:03:26
@misc{9034623,
  abstract     = {{In order to achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate goals, to limit global warming to well below 2 °C, and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a transition from carbon-intensive to low-emission investments is needed. Green bonds have been identified as an important instrument to achieve the transition since green bonds can provide a long-term debt capital to low-emission projects by directly finance or refinance specific assets through the capital markets. Green bonds are not specifically defined and are currently regulated by the free market. Issuers of green bonds mainly use voluntary guidelines that constitute a standard used within the green bond market. The market’s self-regulation has favored the growth and impact of green bonds. However, an unestablished standard for green bonds provides for certain problems and thus high demands on transparency, trust, reporting and verification is placed on the issuer. 

The green bond market is facing a regulatory change as EU has adopted a new regulation, the EU Taxonomy Regulation for sustainable activities, which is a classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities. It is expected to create security for companies and investors to plan the transition from carbon-intensive to low-emission investments and make well-informed decisions about sustainable investments. The EU Taxonomy Regulation will be in force from 1 January 2022 and may involve a stricter assessment of which financial instruments are permitted to be labeled as “green” products and thus may affect the classification of green bonds. Based on the investors' perspectives the thesis aims to analyze which criteria’s must be met for a bond to be classified as “green”. The purpose is also to analyze how the EU Taxonomy Regulation may affect the classification of green bonds. The thesis also intends to analyze whether an investor can claim damages for the use of proceeds in regards to green bonds when the use of proceeds is used in other ways than stated in the prospectus.}},
  author       = {{Forssblad, Karolina}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Gröna obligationer - en grön gråzon}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}