As we inch closer to the target years of global climate goals – whether 2030, 2040 or beyond – the urgency of transitioning to net zero heats up. At ING, our ambition is to help accelerate the transition – because it matters to us as a bank, to our clients and to society.
We are a systemically important financial institution, so we can play a leading role in financing the change that is needed in society. Our activities are focused on helping to drive down emissions to meet the global goal of net zero by 2050, building up the financing of the new technologies and sustainable systems of the future, and finding ways to enable people to play their part in the transition.
By tapping into our global network and local expertise, ING mobilised €130 billion of sustainable financingin 2024*, outperforming market growth and showing strong progress against our 2027 target of €150 billion per annum.
*Details of what counts towards our sustainable volume mobilised can be found here.
Global market trends in 2024
Data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests that the global sustainable finance market returned to healthy growth in 2024 after a muted 2023, increasing by 11%. The year got off to a solid start with a record breaking 1Q, and later a strong third quarter, while 2Q and 4Q showed a mixed picture.
On a regional level, gains were made across the board. In the EMEA market, we expected moderate growth, which proved correct (5.5%); APAC’s numbers continued to go up (8%); and in the Americas, where we had anticipated the US election to negatively affect volumes, the market exceeded expectations and posted an impressive 16% increase versus 2023.
From a product perspective, green bonds once again led the way, making up the largest portion of sustainable finance with a record-breaking US$688bn in 2024, followed by sustainability-linked loans (SLLs) and sustainability bonds. 2024 marked the first year in which transition bonds and loans were tracked. Currently, these instruments are predominantly found in APAC and make up a minority of total sustainable debt issued. But they could find pick-up further afield, especially as attention in Europe turns to using transition plans and setting a basis for transition finance.
Looking ahead towards 2025
Global head of the Sustainable Solutions Group, Jacomijn Vels, says there’s reason both for optimism and caution for 2025:
The beginning of this new year shows signs that the sustainable finance market is off to another positive start. But at the same time, the uncertainty around the impact of President Trump’s policies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives in the US is reason for concern. The administration has already halted funding for green infrastructure worth $300 billion. Without further government subsidies, we’ll likely see heightened scrutiny from investors and as a result, more focus on the commercial viability of green or clean tech projects.
That said, in the renewables and digital infrastructure spaces in particular, the need for green financings will likely continue. There’s momentum behind the Inflation Reduction Act, with many projects already underway, and if it makes economic sense to invest in these projects, then this should provide enough incentive to keep up a solid level of financing.
CSRD
For European listed companies, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) came into effect in 2024, requiring more detailed disclosures on the impact, risks and opportunities of their ESG activities. At ING, we’ve seen how clients are getting to grips with this new reporting standard, which has translated into a higher number of sleeping transactions (whereby the mechanics of a SLL are agreed into the documentation which will be activated when the detailed SLL components are agreed post-origination). Companies still see the value of sustainability-linked loans as engagement products, but many were reluctant to finalise their KPIs last year, preferring instead to wait and align them with CSRD.
ING joins others in the banking sector in welcoming the EU’s proposed Omnibus package, aimed at simplifying regulation and creating a stronger relationship between the EUT, CSRD and CSDDD. ING remains strongly committed to its sustainability strategy and believes in the added value of the EU’s sustainability rulebook. Recalibrating elements of the current framework, with a focus on useability and operationalisation can support the sustainable transition by making ESG disclosures more meaningful for investors, other users, and society as a whole. For CSRD to adopt sectoral standards, it is important those countries who have not yet done so to transpose CSRD into national laws.
Advocacy
ING’s sustainable finance expertise puts us in a strong position to participate in helping the industry move towards a consistent, relevant and practical regulatory environment. We are transparent on our activities around transition planning, including how we link transition planning assessment to our client engagement approach, so that others can build upon what we’ve learnt, and so that we can learn from others. ING is an active participant of multiple key financial sector initiatives.
Partnering with other stakeholders remains a vital part of unlocking the full benefits of sustainable finance. Going forward, for banks to play a more significant role in the sustainable transition, governments (including a local level) will also need to commit to strong transition plans. This is particularly important for companies in hard-to-abate sectors, who require significant sums of investment to decarbonise.
At the same time, many technologies are on the verge of becoming commercially viable, but can only scale through a combination of public and private financing.
Companies , including banks, can only execute their transition plans, and make the necessary investments, when relevant external dependencies allow for that to happen. That’s why financial institutions work closely with industry parties to identify and address these dependencies with relevant governments. After all, capital will only move in support of net zero when the economics make sense.
According to Jacomijn, banks might offer a useful perspective here. Where opportunities allow, financial institutions could offer to support governments by offering long-term financing, where repayments are spread far beyond one party’s incumbency, reducing the immediate financial pressure. At the same time, this will require strong government commitment, especially in committing to country-specific transition plans.
Client transition plans
A focus for ING in 2024 was on developing our approach and methodology for assessing our clients based on the information that they disclose about their climate transition plans, and specifically how that translates to what we call our Client Transition Plan (CTP) score, and how we embed that into the decision-making of the bank.
In January 2025, we published a white paper elaborating on how we did this. Our strategy combines Terra, which is how we steer the most carbon-intensive parts of our portfolio towards net zero, with our CTP assessment, something we continue to refine to make more sectorial and granular. Taken together, these then feed into our decision-making when engaging with clients.
Jacomijn says:
Having first assessed the CTPs, the next step is to monitor progress. We want to engage with clients throughout, while also engaging with those that are non-aligned, and encouraging them to transition with us.
During the year, we have engaged with more than 1,600 of our Wholesale Banking clients on their transition plans. Our approach remains ‘inclusion first’, but if these clients haven’t made the necessary gains after two years, we will start to factor that into our credit decisions. This is how we work towards a consistent transition strategy.
ING’s sustainable set-up
Putting sustainability at the heart of what we do is one of ING’s strategic pillars. In support of this, we continue to invest in developing the right expertise to bring superior value to our clients, and partnering with them in their decarbonisation journeys. With a focus on further embedding cross value chain ESG focus into our organisation, we established the Sustainable Value Chains (SVC) team in 2023 to investigate new business opportunities that cut across new and existing value chains. The team has five focus areas: battery value chains; charging and charging services (for electric vehicles); recycling and bio-based materials; clean tech and electrification, and nature-based solutions.
What’s more, to reflect how ING’s sustainable finance activities go beyond just lending, we changed the set up of this part of our organisation to Sustainable Solutions Group in 2025. Before ING’s set-up was by region only, we’re now also integrating dedicated sector expertise into the team to complement our regional coverage. Just as transition plans and investments are becoming more sector specific, regulation is also becoming more sector specific. The Sustainable Solutions Group aims to set us up to support our clients in addressing the sustainability challenges in their sector even better.
ING & Climate
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 our climate approach.