ICMA principles are currently the most commonly accepted framework for green, social and sustainability bonds’ issuance.
They are coordinated by ICMA, which provides not only administrative support but also guidance for their governance process.
[7] Several authors and studies have raised concerns about the risk of greenwashing, when revenues are not systematically applied to activities with positive environmental outcomes.
Further indicating that this risk is accentuated by the lack of a clear and unique definition of what makes a bond "sustainable".
[8][9] Another criticism is that most of the public and private sector players are more still concerned about the revenue-generating aspects and mainly using the ‘sustainability’ label as a competitive advantage in the business [10] A new category of bonds known as sustainability-linked bonds (SLB),[11] tries to overcome these problems by penalizing the issuer with a step-up coupon in case of failing its sustainability performance target(s).