The Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) has reached a significant milestone, with €1 trillion worth of green, social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds (GSSS) displayed on the platform.
Just two months into a new year and the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s platform for sustainable finance, the Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX), has hit its largest milestone to date after just eight years.
According to the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LGX) blog, LGX has come a long way since its ground-breaking launch in 2016. From the world’s first platform dedicated exclusively to green bonds, it later went on to cover a range of sustainable debt instruments before growing into the reference venue for the full suite of sustainable finance education, data, and assistance services it is today. In other words, the journey towards encompassing €1 trillion worth of outstanding GSSS bonds has been one of continuous evolution.
LuxSE’s first steps into the GSSS bond sphere started well before LGX became a reality. The story goes all the way back to 2007, when the world’s first green bond – the European Investment Bank’s inaugural Climate Awareness bond – was listed on the exchange. That is why reaching this new milestone and helping to make €1 trillion worth of GSSS bonds available to investors is a moment of celebration and validation for LuxSE.
Fast forward from the launch of LGX in 2016 to the present day and the LGX platform, as of 31 January 2024, serves 310+ issuers from 60 countries, which together have issued more than 1,900 GSSS bonds in 41 currencies. The LGX community of issuers include supranational institutions such as the European Union, multilateral development banks, financial institutions and corporates across a range of different sectors.
Reaching the €1 trillion mark is not just a milestone for LGX, but a positive sign for the sustainable finance industry as a whole. It is a testament to all the communities and people whose lives have improved because of the green and social projects financed by these bonds, and to the issuers that have found increasingly ambitious ways to reshape the conventional constructs of debt securities to accelerate their green transitions and drive sustainable development across the world.
From the renewable energy projects made a reality through green bonds, to improvements in education, health and affordable housing financed through social bonds, and ambitious Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that work towards a more inclusive and sustainable world through sustainability-linked bonds, the €1 trillion that has been raised through the 1,900 sustainable bonds currently displayed on LGX has helped address some of the most pressing challenges of our time.
