Below is an excerpt from ISS-Corporate’s recently released article “January 2026 | Sustainable Finance Market Highlights”. The full article is available on ISS-Corporate’s resources page.
Market and Regulatory Highlights
- As 2025 closes and 2026 opens, it is time to take stock of what’s happened over the past year. Environmental Finance estimates that the sustainable debt markets (bonds and loans) contracted by about 20% in 2025.
- While green bonds continue to lead by volume, representing more than 60% of the labelled bond market in volume, sustainability-linked bonds have continued their decline, down 24% compared to 2024 and representing only 3% of the labelled bond market in 2025, according to International Capital Market Association (ICMA) estimates.
- On the loan side, a market contraction is also expected, but the dynamics differ significantly from the bond side. Sustainability-linked loans represent about 40% of the total labelled loan market in volume, with green loans also strongly represented (about 33% in volume), according to Environmental Finance data.
By: Marie-Bénédicte Beaudoin, Executive Director, Head of Sustainable Finance Business Development, ISS-Corporate
