Open Access

Sarah El-Masri

• Abstract In the last decade, green bonds have become one of the most prominent and popular financing instruments for mitigating climate change. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impacts of green bonds with regard to climate neutrality and compare their performance with conventional bonds. Therefore, the following research questions were answered: What are the latest developments in the green bond market? What is the present state of standardized regulations? How do green bonds perform compared to their conventional counterparts? How transparent and "green" is the current green bond market? The paper is based on a literature review in the theoretical part and a practical part illustrating an insight into the current green bond market through three case studies. In the green bond market, which has been growing steadily since 2015, Europe's increasingly strong and prominent position is evident. With a global market volume of over $500 billion in 2021, there has been a substantial increase in market growth during the past few years. A large body of literature shows that green bonds do not exhibit significant differences in performance compared to their conventional counterparts. As the green bond market matures, the phenomenon of a green bond premium is slowly disappearing. Which is in line with the results of the case studies. The green bonds outperform the conventional bonds and achieve a higher return. Further, a lack of standardized regulations can be observed. There are not one but many voluntary standards and regulations. As a result, the actual sustainability and impact of green bonds are difficult to measure.