Sustainable Finance Awards 2026: Middle East

Saudi Arabia was the largest issuer, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the most innovative in the Middle Eastern sustainable-finance market. Today’s issuance is seven times higher than in 2020, and including North Africa, the market reached $35.1 billion in 2025 (18% below its 2023 peak), according to Bloomberg Intelligence. This investment is part of the strategy to diversify the region away from oil and to protect it from climate-related risks, such as water shortages, that result from countries having limited access to fresh water.

Green-labeled issuances increased 60% to $25.8 billion. Saudi Arabia introduced its Green Financing Framework in 2024, which aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 goals. As the country enacts reforms and transforms its economy, it is pursuing a wide range of initiatives, from sustainable housing development to renewable energy.

Banks in the UAE have innovated Sharia-compliant sukuks by structuring these instruments using sustainable frameworks amid growing international demand. Banks have also developed sustainable solutions for companies financed with sustainable instruments.

Despite these efforts across the region, the Middle East still lags two-thirds of the SDG targets. Demand for sustainable finance and solutions has grown, in part, because the region needs to adapt to rising temperatures and other environmental changes. This dynamic turns the $2 trillion funding gap required to meet the SDGs by 2030 into an opportunity.  

QNB Group

QNB Group was named the Middle East’s Best Bank for Sustainable Finance thanks to the number of its initiatives. In late 2025, the bank issued the second green bond and the first euro-denominated issuance originating from Qatar.

At €750 million, this was the largest euro-denominated green bond from a Gulf country. In Turkey, QNB issued a triple-impact sustainable bond and a climate-transition bond. The bonds channel financing toward sectors that contribute to environmental resilience while advancing social and economic empowerment.

They reflect QNB’s strategic commitment to inclusive growth and sustainable finance. The bonds support green initiatives including energy efficiency, low-carbon technologies, green buildings, climate-smart agriculture, and projects aligning with net-zero 2050 targets. The bonds’ social component focuses on financing female-led and youth-led projects. In 2025, the bank also issued its first blue bond. The $25 million offering “underscores our commitment to safeguarding vital water resources,” according to the bank’s award application.

All these activities and more are undertaken under the bank’s publicly accessible QNB Group sustainability policy, outlining the bank’s commitment and approach to environmental, social, and governance activities. The policy was developed in alignment with international standards and guidelines, including various UN Global Compact principles, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles of Rights at Work, and a variety of established standards for green and social bonds. 

Emirates Islamic

Emirates Islamic has begun moving beyond traditional finance to create instruments that incentivize sustainability. The bank recently published its Sustainability-Linked Financing Sukuk Framework 2025, which is relatively novel for the Middle East’s financial sector.

This framework underpinned Emirates Islamic’s $500 million, five-year inaugural sustainability-linked financing sukuk. The sukuk was oversubscribed and listed on Euronext Dublin and Nasdaq Dubai. The framework enables the linking of financing to specific sustainability-performance targets that support the UAE’s sustainability goals. Emirates Islamic is a wholly owned subsidiary and the Islamic banking arm of Emirates NBD.

Emirates NBD

Emirates NBD’s environmental policy is built on governance, risk integration, and disclosure. The bank is committed to helping the UAE achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Emirates NDB has a strong focus on sustainable financing that goes beyond green projects as the bank strives to create a more sustainable future that prioritizes renewable energy, energy efficiency, and water management. Emirates NDB Capital is the investment banking arm of the group and contributes to the bank’s plans to mobilize $30 billion in sustainable financing by 2030.

The bank engaged with Arabian Gulf Steel Industries to determine whether steel could be produced entirely from scrap and financed as a circular producer. Emirates NDB translated its process into a financing structure that had the flexibility of a business need with the rigor of a deal that outlines how proceeds will be used. The transaction was structured with a circular steel test requiring at least 95% of revenue and production from scrap-based steelmaking. With this financing, Arabian Gulf Steel Industries achieved flexible, competitive pricing tied to circular performance.

Emirates NBD completed a 3.9 billion Emirati dirham (about $1.1 billion) fully underwritten syndicated bonding facility for the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority Metro Blue Line, an electrified metro extension connecting major residential, educational, and employment hubs. This deal supports a shift from cars to mass transit and will affect about 200,000 passengers. It also supports the UAE’s low-carbon goals by expanding clean mass transit and reducing road congestion.

Kuwait Finance House

Despite pop-culture depictions, not everyone in Kuwait is a sheikh. In fact, small-businesspeople—founders and owners of MSMEs—form the backbone of Kuwait’s non-oil private sector economy.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, up to 95% of all firms in this sector are MSMEs. Operating in retail, service, construction, hospitality, and other industries, they act as a major source of employment. To help support these businesses, their employees, and the communities they serve, Kuwait Finance House established a dedicated SME unit more than a decade ago.

It offers Sharia-compliant banking and financial solutions. In 2025, the bank built on that initiative by establishing a Sustainable Business program for SMEs. This program guides SMEs in achieving their business goals while promoting sustainable growth.

National Bank of Kuwait

In 2024, the National Bank of Kuwait published its first annual Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures report. The report aligns with the reporting guidelines set forth by the international Financial Stability Board.

The bank’s publicly accessible report discloses information about climate-related risks and opportunities in bank operations. In 2025, the bank began integrating climate-risk considerations into its operations by aligning its existing risk-management framework to recommendations made in the report.

Results on environmental performance and carbon footprints to date can be found in a series of reports housed on the bank’s public ESG Resources Hub. These include sustainability reports, green-bond allocation and impact reports, an ESG-risk framework, and investor presentations. Also accessible are diversity, equity, and inclusion commitment statements; suppliers’ codes of conduct; and human rights statements.

First Abu Dhabi Bank

In 2025, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) facilitated over $23 billion in sustainable finance, more than 70% of its 2030 commitment. The bank increased its sustainable-finance target to lend, invest, and facilitate by 80%, from $75 billion to $135 billion, and advised transactions across various industries including transportation, financial institutions, real estate, retail, energy, and manufacturing sectors.

The bank demonstrated its leadership with complex financings. FAB facilitated $8.6 billion in sustainability-linked financings and issued the first bond by a financial institution to be used for a refinancing in nuclear power generation.

FAB worked with PIF6 Solar on a $4.5 billion transaction to develop five solar-PV projects in Saudi Arabia that have a combined capacity of 12 GW. This transaction develops a clean-energy infrastructure that advances Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which is a framework to transform the country through economic diversity with reduced oil dependency, social reform, tourism, growth, and sustainability. This transaction is one of the largest renewable-energy financings in the Middle East. The bank was the sole sustainability coordinator, bookrunner, and mandated lead arranger for the Africa Finance Corporation’s inaugural 937 million Emirati dirham sustainability-linked loan. This loan was a significant achievement in their funding strategy and connects future borrowing costs with measurable environmental outcomes through sustainability-performance targets.