53 pages carry this tag.
Green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds both carry a sustainability label, but they work in opposite ways. One controls where the money goes. The other controls what the issuer must achieve.
The EU's sustainability rules reach Indian companies through EU subsidiaries, EU customers and EU investors. The CSRD after the 2026 Omnibus cuts, the simplified ESRS, the EU Taxonomy and the proposed SFDR overhaul.
For banks and NBFCs, climate risk sits mainly in the loan book. RBI's path from its 2022 discussion paper to the 2024 draft disclosure framework and the 2025 climate finance Directions, and what analysts can use today.
Green, social, sustainability, sustainability-linked and transition bonds and loans on one map. The two basic designs, the standard behind each label, the size of the market worldwide and in India, and the checks that apply to every label.
A green bond is a normal bond whose money must go to defined green projects. ICMA's principles, SEBI's rules, India's sovereign green bonds and the greenium.
Social bonds fund projects that help defined groups of people. Sustainability bonds fund a mix of green and social projects. ICMA's principles, the six project categories, target populations, SEBI's 2025 rules and how to test social impact claims.
Sustainability-linked bonds can fund anything, but their terms change if the issuer misses its sustainability targets. KPIs, targets, coupon step-ups, SEBI's 2025 framework, and the questions to ask.
Money that helps high-emitting companies cut their emissions, rather than funding activities that are already green. Transition bonds, SEBI's rules, ICMA's 2025 guidelines, Japan's sovereign transition bonds, India's draft taxonomy, and the tests of a credible transition plan.
One map of SEBI's rules for labelled debt: green debt securities and their blue, yellow and transition sub-categories, the greenwashing do's and don'ts, the 2025 framework for social, sustainability and sustainability-linked bonds, and the 2026 rules for independent reviewers.
The Government of India's green bonds: the 2022 framework, the nine eligible categories, what the money has funded, the auction record from 2023 to 2026, the shift to 30-year bonds, foreign access through GIFT City, and the greenium.
The greenium is the small yield discount that investors may accept on a green bond. The ways to measure it, the forces that drive it, the evidence from India's sovereign and municipal green bonds, and its real effect on a company's cost of capital.
RBI's rules for green deposits: what banks can and cannot promise depositors, where the money may go, the excluded activities, third-party verification and impact reports, and how to read a bank's green deposit disclosures.
How floods, heatwaves and carbon policy reach a lender's balance sheet. Financed emissions and the PCAF standard, RBI's 2022 pilot climate stress test, global rules for banks, and a checklist for analysing an Indian lender.
A taxonomy is an official rulebook of which activities count as green or as transition. The EU model, India's May 2025 draft (its categories, eight principles and first sectors), where it stands in 2026, and the interim lists that banks and bond issuers use in the meantime.
Blended finance uses public or philanthropic money to take extra risk so that private investors will fund projects they would otherwise avoid. The main tools, the size of the market, India's viability gap funding schemes, and the questions to ask about a blended deal.
For lenders, the big ESG issues sit in the loan book and in customer data: climate credit risk and financed emissions, data privacy and cyber risk, fair lending and governance. The issues, the data and the RBI and DPDP rules to know.
A positive figure means the green bond yields less, so the issuer pays less interest because of the label. Most measured greeniums are a few basis...
The result is the part of the borrowers' emissions that is linked to the lender's money. Total financed emissions grow when lending grows, so also look...
The EU's classification system that defines which economic activities count as environmentally sustainable.
A bond whose proceeds must be used for defined environmental or climate projects, such as renewable energy, clean transport or green buildings.
A bond whose proceeds fund projects with clear social benefits for a defined target population, such as affordable housing, healthcare or loans to small businesses.
A bond whose proceeds fund a mix of green and social projects under a single framework.
A general-purpose bond whose financial terms, usually the coupon, change depending on whether the issuer meets predefined sustainability targets.
A bank loan whose interest margin moves up or down depending on whether the borrower meets agreed sustainability targets.
A use-of-proceeds bond that funds projects to cut emissions in high-emitting activities that cannot yet become fully green.
A green bond whose proceeds go to sustainable water management or the marine and ocean economy.
An Indian sub-category of green bond whose proceeds go to solar energy generation and the industries linked to it.
A loan whose money must be used for eligible green projects, with tracking and reporting similar to a green bond.
An interest-bearing fixed deposit at a bank or NBFC whose proceeds are earmarked for green lending or investment.
A green bond issued by a city or urban local body to fund projects such as sewage treatment, water supply or solar power.
An infrastructure investment trust that owns renewable energy or other green infrastructure assets and pays out most of their cash flows to unitholders.
The rule that the money raised from a labelled bond or loan must go only to eligible projects described in its framework.
A key performance indicator, such as emissions intensity or renewable energy share, that a sustainability-linked bond or loan is tied to.
The level a sustainability KPI must reach by a set observation date under a sustainability-linked bond or loan.
An increase in a bond's interest rate that applies if the issuer misses its sustainability performance target.
An independent assessment, issued before a bond is sold, of whether the issuer's green, social or sustainability-linked framework is aligned with recognised principles.
An external firm that SEBI requires issuers of listed green and ESG debt securities to appoint to confirm that the bond meets the label's rules.
A regular report showing how much of a labelled bond's or deposit's money has been spent, on which projects or categories, and how much remains unallocated.
A report on the environmental or social results achieved with a labelled bond, loan or deposit, such as emissions avoided or people served.
Voluntary guidelines, first published in 2014 by a group of market participants supported by the International Capital Market Association, that set the global baseline for green bonds.
A certification scheme run by the Climate Bonds Initiative that checks bonds and other debt against science-based criteria for each sector.
A voluntary EU label, applying from 21 December 2024, for green bonds that put at least 85% of their proceeds into EU Taxonomy-aligned activities.
A green bond issued by a national government, with an amount equal to the proceeds allocated to eligible green public spending.
The yield discount on a green bond compared with an otherwise identical conventional bond from the same issuer.
The share of borrowers' and investees' greenhouse gas emissions that is attributed to a bank, insurer or investor that funds them.
A global industry initiative whose standard is the most widely used method for financial institutions to measure financed, facilitated and insurance-associated emissions.
The share of a borrower's or investee's emissions that a lender or investor counts as its own, based on its share of the company's financing.
Emissions linked to capital market deals that a bank arranges or underwrites, such as bond and share issues, rather than funds on its own balance sheet.
An exercise that estimates how a bank's or insurer's losses would change under severe physical or transition climate scenarios.
An official classification of which economic activities count as climate-friendly or transition activities, often with numeric thresholds.
The use of concessional public or philanthropic money to lower the risk or raise the return of a project so that private investors will also fund it.
Money in a deal that agrees to absorb the first losses if the project performs badly, which protects the investors ranked above it.
A government capital grant that covers part of a project's cost so that it becomes commercially viable for private developers.
Related topics: Valuation, DCF, Relative valuation, Cost of capital, Financial statements, Cash flow, Earnings quality, Red flags
