The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has published its ESG Finance Report for the second quarter of 2024, which has found that European green bonds reached the highest H1 issued amount on records.
ESG bond and loan issuance decelerates during Q2’24 after record first quarter:
-
- ESG bond and loan issuance totalled €158bn, a 14% decrease from Q2 2023 (YoY) and a 31% decrease from Q1 2024 (QoQ)
- With the exception of ESG securitisation, all other sustainable instruments covered in this report exhibited a quarterly issuance decline
- Sustainability-linked bonds continued a further decline on a quarterly and Year-to-date basis. The cumulative amount issued the first half of the year is the lowest observed since 2020.
- German issuers led in Q1 2024 by total ESG bond and loan issuance, closely followed by French issuers. Notably, c. 50% of sustainability-linked bonds was originated in Italy and a half of ESG bonds were issued in France or Germany.
The share of ESG bonds in total bond issuance in Europe has plateaued, or even decreased since 2021:
- ESG bond issuance, including ESG-labelled, sustainability-linked and transition bonds, represented 13% of total European bond issuance during 2024 YtD, a lower proportion from 14% in 2023 and 18% in 2022.
- On a year-to-date basis, European green bonds reached the highest H1 issued amount on records. However, relative to the total European bond issued amount, its proportion has continued at c10% since 2021.
Declining pool of ESG Assets Under Management (AuM) notwithstanding net quarterly inflows:
-
- Lower asset prices led to a 1.7% decrease (QoQ) in global ESG funds, reaching a total amount of $USD 9.7tn despite quarterly net inflows for $USD 37.5 bn.
Source: AFME
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
And receive exclusive articles on securities markets
It's been a month since we had our Women In Finance Awards in New York City at the Plaza! Take a look back tab some moments, and nominate for our upcoming awards in Mexico City and Singapore here: https://www.marketsmedia.com/category/events/
4
Citadel Securities told the SEC that trading tokenized equities should remain under existing market rules, a position that drew responses from various crypto industry groups. @ShannyBasar for @MarketsMedia:
SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda argued that private assets belong in retirement plans, saying diversified alts can improve risk-adjusted returns and that the answer to optimal exposure “is not zero.” @ShannyBasar reporting for @MarketsMedia:
COO of the Year Award winner! 🏆
Discover how Jennifer Kaiser of Marex earned the 2025 Women in Finance COO of the Year recognition.
Related articles
-
More countries are set to join leading emerging market indices in 2026.
-
This is the first step in the broader strategy to make DTC-custodied assets available onchain.
-
The white paper marks the first step to support more reliable and effective pre-trade transparency.
-
Proposed order would expand CME-FICC cross-margining to customers.
-
Settling government bonds in a T2S environment reduces operational risk and increases efficiency.