10 October 2023 Since the release of the Green Bond Principles in 2014, ICMA and its members have played a central role in nurturing and promoting best practice in sustainable finance. As such, we have felt a particular responsibility to engage with the debate on greenwashing and market integrity in addition to our contribution to the development of global product standards for sustainable bonds, and debt capital market products more broadly, while collaborating actively with the regulatory community.

Download 'Market integrity and greenwashing risks in sustainable finance'

Following ICMA’s response to the Call for Evidence on greenwashing from the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) earlier this year, we develop further in this publication our analysis of greenwashing concerns in the sustainable finance market from a global perspective, while adding references to external and inhouse research, as well as providing five high level recommendations to policy makers and regulators.

The ambition of this paper is to promote a constructive dialogue between the market, civil society and regulators on addressing greenwashing risks while avoiding the twin risks of market complacency and regulatory overshoot. As part of this we have sought to unpack greenwashing to identify the fundamental areas of concern and to describe the issues they raise. We have also paired these areas as much as possible with actionable regulatory or market solutions which in most cases are already under way.