The report, to be released quarterly, contains up to date trends for the European Sustainable Finance market including issuance of green, social and sustainable bonds and ESG and Green linked loans; green Securitisation issuance; outstanding amounts of ESG bonds; ESG fund management; ESG bond trading; carbon trading; and ESG valuation figures as well as a high-level regulatory and supervisory snapshot on the European Sustainable Finance market.

Key findings from 2020 reveal:
• Substantial growth of 58.8% in European ESG bond and loan Issuance in 2020, from €245bn in 2019 to €389bn in 2020. Social bond activity rose significantly linked to Covid-related support. ESG Bond issuance was 8.3% of total European bond issuance in 2020, up from 5.0% in 2019.
• ESG bond spreads have performed well; green premium for corporate bonds (“greenium”) finalised 2020 at c5bps against non-green benchmarks.
• The top issuers of ESG bonds and loans were France, Germany and Luxembourg (including issuance under the EC SURE social bond scheme), compared to France, the UK and Spain in 2019.
• In 2020, the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) was the largest greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme globally, with 2249.1 Mt CO2-eq covered, with a value of USD 33.6 bn. The European Union Allowance (EuA) price per metric tonne has increased by 21.3% from €24.03 in December 2019 to €30.52 in December 2020.