Global sustainable debt issuance crossed a key milestone, reaching a cumulative total of $7trn and signalling continued growth in the labelled debt market.
Global investor demand for labelled debt picked up, according to new data from the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI), which showed that the pace of growth in green and sustainable labelled bonds accelerated.
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While it took 13 years for issuance to cross the $1trn milestone, it took just a further five years to reach $7trn, indicating that sustainable debt moved further into the mainstream, CBI said.
During the past year alone, annual aligned issuance surpassed $1trn for the third consecutive year, with green bonds continuing to dominate the market, accounting for 64% of overall green, social and sustainability (GSS) issuance, according to CBI’s Global State of the Market 2025 report.
Green bonds and loans were expected to grow to around $700bn and $255bn of issuance respectively in 2026, supported by rising power demand driven in part by artificial intelligence, according to ING.
While the market continued to grow steadily, the composition of issuers evolved. Europe and Asia-Pacific expanded their labelled debt issuance, while US corporate issuance of green debt declined significantly over the past year, according to research from LSEG.
Although corporate labelled debt issuance fell globally in 2025, ING forecast a rebound, predicting that around $640bn in corporate GSS debt could be issued that year.
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