Standard Chartered has published its 2025 Sustainability Bond Framework, setting out the terms under which the bank will issue green, social and sustainability bonds and notes going forward. The framework is aligned with the International Capital Market Association's Green Bond Principles 2025 and Social Bond Principles 2025, the bank said in the framework published on its website in December 2025.
The framework restates the Group's existing target of mobilising USD 300 billion in sustainable finance by 2030. Between January 2021 and September 2024, the bank mobilised USD 121 billion towards that goal, while its Sustainable Finance lending assets grew 32% year on year to USD 23.3 billion.
CARBON AVOIDANCE AND NEW INNOVATION HUBS
The bank's existing portfolio of sustainable assets accounted for 4.06 million tonnes of achieved and expected CO2 emissions avoided over the past year from assets in operation and under construction. The figure is from the bank's 2024 Sustainable Finance Impact Report, which covers its Sustainable Finance lending portfolio.
In 2025, Standard Chartered launched a Circular Economy Innovation Hub, adding to four existing sustainability innovation hubs. The hubs are designed to identify, facilitate and scale bankable sustainability opportunities in the bank's footprint markets. The framework notes that the Group has issued four bonds under it, including its inaugural EUR 1 billion social bond in March 2025.
The framework also sets out the bank's commitment to 2030 interim financed emissions targets across 12 of its highest-emitting client sectors. These sector-level targets sit alongside the broader net-zero financed emissions ambition for 2050.
FOCUS MARKETS AND REPORTING
The bank said in the framework document that its focus would remain on high-impact markets where the capital mobilisation gap is largest.
The updated principles were published by ICMA in June 2025. The bank said it would publish annual allocation and impact reports for instruments issued under the framework.
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