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The 2023 Forest Declaration Assessment executive summary reports that the world is off track to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030, citing a 2022 global gross deforestation of 6.6 million hectares. While some countries and regions, such as tropical Asia, show progress, the report highlights a critical lack of funding, transparency, and accountability among governments, companies, and financial institutions.

A report by the Climate Bonds Initiative and the Institute of Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) analyzing the state of the Japanese green finance market in 2021, covering green bond trends, unlabelled climate-aligned debt, and the evolving regulatory landscape for transition and sustainable finance.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative evaluates the readiness of major commercial financial institutions in Indonesia to assess and disclose climate-related risks and opportunities. Based on a survey conducted between September 2021 and June 2022, the report finds that while banks show high compliance with national sustainability reporting mandates (POJK 51/2017), they lack the depth of disclosure required by international benchmarks like the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The report highlights a gap between the growth of green portfolios and the actual integration of climate risk into financial statements and risk management frameworks.

This executive summary from the Climate Bonds Initiative outlines a comprehensive framework of 101 sustainable finance policies designed to align global capital flows with the 1.5°C warming limit. It argues that while the costs of climate action are high, the costs of inaction are higher, citing increased capital costs for vulnerable nations and credit downgrades for fossil-fuel-dependent sovereigns. The proposed framework is built on three pillars: providing clarity on green investments via taxonomies, tilting investment toward green opportunities through de-risking and carbon pricing, and building green investment pipelines for resilient development.

The Kenya Green Bond Programme (2017-2021) aimed to accelerate the use of green bonds to finance climate mitigation and adaptation in Kenya. The project successfully mobilised GBP 64.95 million in private finance, supported three green finance transactions (including Kenya's first green bond), established regulatory guidelines and tax incentives, and trained over 20,000 bank employees and 16 verifiers.

The WAEMU Green Bond Scoping Report, published by FSD Africa in September 2022, evaluates the feasibility of developing a Green Bond market within the West African Economic and Monetary Union. The report identifies significant potential for sovereign and corporate issuance, particularly in energy, agriculture, and transportation, but highlights critical barriers including underdeveloped regional financial markets, a lack of government focus on climate-resilient regulatory frameworks, and limited technical capacity among stakeholders to meet international green standards. It recommends targeted capacity building, the development of harmonized regional guidelines, and the use of technical assistance and risk-transfer instruments to attract investors and build a pipeline of bankable green projects.

This research paper examines the role of the Swedish finance sector in sustainability transitions, concluding that the sector is unlikely to lead the transition without significant government intervention to mitigate risk.

This report provides an overview of the global sustainable bond market for the first half of 2022, focusing on Green, Social, Sustainability, Sustainability-Linked, and Transition (GSS+) bonds. It details issuance volumes, regional trends, the emergence of new sovereign issuers, and the evolving policy landscape regarding sustainable finance taxonomies.

The Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) Social and Sustainability Bond Database (SSBDB) Methodology outlines the criteria and process for identifying and classifying social and sustainability-labelled debt instruments. The database aims to provide transparency on global social and sustainability debt, including use-of-proceeds (UoP) bonds and sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs), while ensuring these instruments do not cause significant harm to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The Capital Markets Impact Report by FSD Africa details the organization's efforts to develop African capital markets to address financing gaps in infrastructure, housing, and climate resilience. The report outlines FSD Africa's strategic shift toward five priority countries—Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Nigeria—while maintaining a regional footprint. It highlights the use of technical assistance, grants, and direct investments to foster green and gender bonds, improve regulatory frameworks, and enhance market infrastructure to reduce dependency on bank-dominated financial sectors.

This policy brief examines the challenges and opportunities for securing sustainable finance to support Africa's regional infrastructure agenda, specifically within the framework of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It highlights the gap between Africa's high climate vulnerability and its low access to sustainable finance, proposing lessons from the ASEAN region to improve project bankability and regulatory harmonisation.

The Hong Kong Green and Sustainable Debt Market Briefing 2021, published by the Climate Bonds Initiative, analyzes the growth and composition of the GSS+ (green, social, sustainability, transition, and sustainability-linked) debt market in Hong Kong for the year 2021. The report highlights a significant expansion in green debt instruments, the role of the HKSAR Government in driving market growth, and the city's efforts to establish itself as an international green finance hub through the adoption of the Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT).

This discussion paper by the Climate Bonds Initiative proposes the certification of short-term debt instruments—defined as those with a maturity at issuance of less than 365 days—to mobilize more capital for climate action. It argues that while green bond standards have historically focused on longer-term debt, the USD55tn short-term debt market represents a significant untapped source of green capital. The paper outlines how various instruments, including Commercial Paper and Green Repos, can be certified under the Climate Bonds Standard, primarily through the Use of Proceeds (UoP) principle, and recommends the development of a 'pure-play' entity definition to further scale the market.

This report by the Climate Bonds Initiative provides an overview of the global sustainable bond market in the first quarter of 2022, noting that cumulative issuance of GSS+ bonds surpassed $3 trillion despite a quarterly decline in issuance volume due to market volatility, rising interest rates, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative analyzes the blue finance landscape in Indonesia between 2015 and 2019, focusing on the sources, instruments, and recipients of funding for the blue economy. It highlights the dominance of public international finance and commercial banks, while detailing the significant barriers faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the fisheries sector, including collateral requirements and geographic disparities in loan distribution.

The document argues that the current structure of global and national financial systems hinders the transition to sustainability, highlighting a significant funding gap for the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the dominance of perceived profitability over sustainability standards in financial flows.

The China Green Bond Market Report 2021, published by the Climate Bonds Initiative and CCDC Research, analyzes the rapid expansion of China's green bond market in 2021. The report highlights a record high in annual issuance, the shift toward non-financial corporate issuers, and the dominance of renewable energy projects in the use of proceeds, all occurring against the backdrop of China's '30·60' carbon targets.

The 'China Green Bond Market Report 2021', published by the Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) and the China Central Depository & Clearing Co., Ltd. (CCDC) Research Center, analyzes the rapid growth of China's green bond market in 2021. The report highlights a significant increase in issuance, a shift toward non-financial corporate issuers, and the dominance of renewable energy investments, all aligned with China's 'dual carbon' goals of peaking emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

This report by the Climate Bonds Initiative analyzes the state of the sustainable debt market in India as of December 31, 2021. It details the growth of green, social, and sustainability (GSS) bonds and sustainability-linked bonds (SLBs), highlighting the dominance of the green sector and the role of non-financial corporates. The document also explores growth avenues in renewable energy, electric vehicles, waste management, and agriculture, while outlining the policy framework being developed by the Indian Ministry of Finance.

The 2021 China Green Bonds Investor Survey reveals a strong appetite for high-quality green bonds, particularly in renewable energy and low-carbon transport. While financial and corporate bonds are preferred, international investors are hindered by regulatory entry barriers and quotas. The report emphasizes that market growth depends on robust credit fundamentals, transparent green credentials, and the alignment of national green taxonomies with international standards to mitigate greenwashing risks.