Dutch Bank Issues Europe's First Certified Climate Bond

, a bank based in the Netherlands,

the eurozone's first ever green bond on Wednesday shortly after the Climate Bonds Standard for Low Carbon Buildings was unveiled at an investor meeting in London. The bond represents what many hope will be a growing push to lower carbon emissions throughout Europe and is expected to be the first of many bonds issued with this certification.

Investor interest in the bond caused ABN AMRO to upsize the bond deal from EUR 350m to EUR 500m ($556 million), making it the largest Certified Climate Bond to have been issued to date. In late May,

its own Certified Climate Bond for A$600m ($464 million). Both bonds were well received by all types of investors, though dedicated green investors made up the majority of the interested parties.


A Certified Climate Bond means that the bond has been evaluated by an approved verifying party which ensures that the proceeds of the bond are used to further the development of low carbon buildings. This week at the RI Europe 2015 in London, the

dictating what projects would qualify for use of Certified Climate Bond funds were unveiled. They included new rules regarding carbon standards for commercial and residential buildings as well as upgrade projects.

Both ANZ and ABN AMRO saw investors oversubscribing for their green bonds, suggesting that there is a massive market for environmentally conscious investment options. Many expect that the growing number of green investors will prompt more banks to roll out their own Certified Climate Bonds and help push forward the initiative for sustainable construction.