Around 7% of all bonds issued by Austrian issuers are classified as sustainable. This refers to bonds that meet specific ESG criteria established by the ECB (ESG stands for environment, social and governance). This puts Austria in 7th place in the euro area – ahead of large countries such as Spain (5.5%) and Italy (4.7%) – and close to the capital-weighted average of all euro area countries.
In absolute terms too, sustainable bond financing in Austria has reached a considerable scale: the outstanding volume of ESG-certified debt securities in Austria rose to a new high of EUR 45.9 billion at the end of 2025. ESG investing considers environmental, social and governance factors. This value exceeds numerous other regionally oriented bond markets such as Finland (EUR 35.4 billion), Portugal (EUR 14.5 billion) or Slovenia (EUR 4.6 billion). Even internationally oriented markets like Luxembourg (EUR 48.6 billion) or Ireland (EUR 39.2 billion) are at a comparable level.
At EUR 19.3 billion, the Republic of Austria accounts for a large portion of the total outstanding volume of sustainable bonds. It is therefore the most important issuer in this market segment.
In the euro area, financing through sustainable bonds is concentrated in France (EUR 519 billion), Germany (EUR 351 billion) and the Netherlands (EUR 275 billion). These three countries account for around two-thirds of the total volume outstanding in the euro area.