Sustainable Finance 2025: Robust despite headwinds

This is also reflected in the global volume of sustainable financing. In the second quarter of 2025, it amounted to $432 billion, slightly above the level of the Q2 figures of the two previous years. Over the first half of the year, the issue volume totals USD 852 billion, which is only slightly below the USD 909 billion in the same period last year. Taking into account the volatile market environment and the headwinds that sustainability is experiencing, especially in the USA under President Trump, these are figures that give hope.

With regard to the instruments used, the market is proving to be stable: green bonds remain the mainstay of the product mix with a volume of almost 400 billion US dollars, while sustainability bonds continue to be in second place. Although sustainability-linked loans recorded a year-on-year decline in the volume issued, they remain an important lever for financing the transformation. Green loans are growing slightly – an indication that more and more financing is specifically aimed at the transition to more climate-friendly business models. Basically, a look at the past five years shows that the market is adapting to the macroeconomic and political environment without losing breadth.

Regional differences as a reflection of changing conditions

The picture is much more differentiated in the regional view. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), volumes are stable to slightly declining. The reason: the high demand for conventional bonds often makes ESG instruments superfluous, especially since there is already a very established market with mature ESG frameworks. The strong momentum in Central and Eastern Europe, where sustainable financing is booming, is positive. Total issuance volume increased from $19.5 billion in 2024 to $31.5 billion in 2025 in the first and second quarters.

The USA, on the other hand, are recording significant declines. The reasons for this are obvious: reduced subsidies, withdrawn or delayed regulations and a generally negative attitude of the current government towards sustainability and ESG issues are causing issuers and investors to act more cautiously. Accordingly, the volume of the market has fallen from just under 200 billion US dollars to around 180 billion US dollars.

A real ray of hope comes from Asia-Pacific (APAC): The region is heading for a record year, with a significant year-on-year increase in total volume from $250 billion to around $270 billion. Companies and financial institutions in particular are driving the transformation and have noticeably expanded their sustainable issuance.

ING in market comparison: a strong half-year and a dynamic pipeline

The first half of 2025 was also extremely successful at ING. As a result, the bank was able to mobilise EUR 68 billion in sustainable financing – with 19 percent more than in the same period last year, it was even the strongest H1 in the company's history. Of the total volume, around 38 billion euros were accounted for in the second quarter (an increase of 16 percent compared to Q2 2024). In contrast to the general financing market, sustainability-linked loans are the most widely used financing instrument at ING, followed by green bonds and green loans. The number of green loans has risen particularly sharply: with a growth of 48 percent in the number of transactions and 17 percent in volume compared to the same period last year, the loans show the increasing demand for transformation financing.

Deal activity also picked up: with 210 sustainable finance transactions in the first half of the year, the number of accompanied debt issuances was around 20 percent higher than in the previous year. A special highlight here is the financing for Electra, a leading operator of charging infrastructure. With a volume of 433 million euros, the deal is one of the largest transactions in the sector. With the capital, the company plans to expand its network to 15,000 charging stations in Europe and at the same time develop them further so that they can be optimally integrated into existing power grids and make greater use of renewable energies.

Sustainability as part of the business strategy

ING pursues the goal of taking a leading role in the transformation to a sustainable economy. This not only protects the planet, but also strengthens the resilience of the institute. ING has a direct influence on sustainability through its business model, for example by deciding which companies and projects it finances with loans. In addition, it is indirectly exposed to environmental risks through its loan portfolio. It is therefore in their own interest to accompany and support their corporate clients in their transition.

Since 2018, the heart of ING's sustainability approach has been the Terra approach, with which the bank is aligning the most emission-intensive sectors of its portfolio with climate neutrality by 2050. It is based on a comprehensive analysis of the entire loan portfolio to identify potential for reducing CO2 emissions and optimize capital allocation, for example by financing more renewable energy projects. In return, it is withdrawing from sectors such as coal. Terra can be used to compare and verify companies' actual emissions with net-zero pathways, and thus quantify transformation successes. In addition, the in-house ESG. X tool has been measuring the individual sustainability reporting of around 2,000 major customers since 2023, thus providing an evaluation of sustainability efforts at the level of individual companies.

One result of ING's sustainability approach is the consistent phase-out of fossil financing: no new financing has been provided for coal-fired power plants since 2015, and no new oil and gas fields have been financed since 2022. With TransMission, pilot projects were also launched in the shipping industry and commercial real estate in 2024 to develop cross-sector solutions for transformation.

The second quarter of 2025 shows that sustainable financing remains relevant and demand is high. While the political and economic environment cannot be ignored, neither has stopped the momentum of the market. For ING, financing the sustainable transformation remains part of its strategic direction – and with new record volumes, it is playing an active role in steering capital towards the future.

Society is transitioning to a low-carbon economy. So are our clients, and so is ING. We finance a lot of sustainable activities, but we still finance more that’s not. See how we’re progressing on ing.com/climate.