The Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) has today published its ESG Finance Report for the first quarter of 2026, which finds that European ESG bond and loan issuance declined by 24% YoY during this quarter.
ESG bond and loan issuance accumulated €153bn in proceeds in Q1 2026, a 24% decline from Q1 2026.
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- Sustainability-linked and Green Loans led the decline, with a 52% drop from Q1 2025.
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- French issuers have led in total loan and bond origination in the first quarter with €41bn, followed by German issuers (€24bn). Notably, around 96% of sustainability-linked bonds were originated in Italy
Green bond issuance declined by 4.6% from Q1 2025, though remaining the largest ESG category by volume, and generating €87.4bn in proceeds. Sustainable bond issuance and sustainability-linked bond issuance experienced significant drops year-on-year, of 36.5% and 90% respectively. Social bond issuance experienced a small increase (+2%).
The share of ESG bonds in total bond issuance in Europe increased in 2026. ESG-labelled, sustainability-linked and transition bonds represented 13.6% of total European bond issuance in Q1 2026, from 10.9% in 2025.
In Q1 2026, 9 EU Green Bond Standard (EU GBS)-compliant bonds have been issued. The largest EU GBS bond issuance carried out during this period was originated by the EIB (€3.96bn), followed by ABN AMRO Bank (€1.25bn).
Global ESG Funds totalled USD 12.6tn in Q1 2026. This represented a 1.6% decline from Q4 2025, but a 20% Year-on-Year growth, which was primarily driven by increased allocations to equity and bond funds.
Global ESG Funds saw inflows reaching USD 102bn in Q1 2026, primarily driven by European funds.
ESG premium remained stable in Q1 2026, moving slightly from 1.24 bps at the end of December 2025 to 1.27 bps by the end of March 2026.
Source: AFME
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