Sustainability

The Future of Green Bonds: investor insights from our recent webinar

08 Oct 2025 . 3 min read

As the green bond market continues to evolve, investors are sharpening their focus on transparency, credibility, and strategic alignment. In this 21st episode of our popular sustainable investor series, we brought together leading voices from the investment community to explore the future of green bonds - from regulatory developments to emerging themes like biodiversity and transition finance.

Moderated by Dr Arthur Krebbers and Zeyno Yurddas from our Sustainable Finance Advisory team, the panel included:

Thomas Coudert, Head of Sustainability, Core Investments at AXA IM
Felipe Gordillo, Lead Impact Specialist – GSS Bonds at Mirova
Samuel Mary, Senior ESG Research Analyst and Climate Lead at PIMCO
Kate McGrath, Senior ESG Investment Manager at Aberdeen

Here are five key takeaways from the discussion:

1. EU Green Bond Standard (EU GBS): a step toward market maturity

The EU GBS is seen as a positive move toward greater transparency and harmonisation in the green bond market.
Investors are increasingly focused on how green bond frameworks align with issuers’ broader corporate strategies.
Key investor interests include project types, strategic intent, and quality of disclosures.
Challenges remain, especially around applying the “Do No Significant Harm” (DNSH) criteria and navigating geopolitical and market constraints.
Despite hurdles, EU GBS issuance is expected to maintain momentum.

2. Transition finance: building credibility in hard-to-abate sectors

There is growing interest in financing credible transition plans, especially for hard-to-abate sectors.
While innovation in labelled instruments is welcomed, there is no consensus on the need for a dedicated “transition” label.
Concerns exist about market fragmentation and maintaining the integrity of green bond standards.
Sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs) are viewed as a key tool for transition finance, provided they are backed by clear strategies, robust metrics, and transparent reporting.

3. Enabling activities: frameworks must catch up

Enabling activities - those that support environmental goals indirectly - are increasingly discussed.
Key issues include how capital expenditure is allocated, how client profiles evolve, and how indirect impacts are measured.
Avoiding double-counting and clearly articulating end-user benefits are essential for credibility.

4. Nature and biodiversity: the next frontier

Nature-related themes are starting to appear in green bond frameworks, but substantial allocations remain limited.
Investors often need to assess qualitative aspects of frameworks to evaluate nature integration.
Project-level reporting on biodiversity is possible, but comparing impacts across issuances remains a challenge.
There is a growing expectation for nature-related impacts to be included in green bond reporting.

5. A rapidly evolving market: clarity and impact are key

Investors are looking for clarity, credibility, and strategic alignment from issuers.
Whether through EU GBS, SLBs, or nature-integrated frameworks, the focus is on real-world impact and long-term sustainability outcomes.

View the full webinar replay

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Sustainable financing and facilitation represents only a relatively small proportion of NatWest Group’s overall financing and facilitation activities. Details of our financing and facilitation activities and associated emissions can be found in the NatWest Group – 2024 Sustainability Report (sections ‘Estimates of financed emissions’ (p.41) and ‘Estimates of facilitated emissions from bond underwriting and syndicated lending’ (p.45))

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