India's green bond issuances 3.8% of domestic corporate bond market: Report

The green bond market in the country, which is projected to require more than USD 10 trillion to meet its green goals, accounts for just 3.8 per cent of the overall outstanding corporate bonds worth more than USD 500 billion, says a report.

In a report on Friday, Fitch Ratings said that as of January 2023, GSSS (Green, Social, Sustainability and Sustainability-linked Debt) bonds accounted for USD 20 billion or 3.8 per cent of the country's overall corporate bond market while the government bond market is more than double this size.

One of the main reasons for the small size of the domestic green bond market is that issuers are heavily concentrated in the energy sector and especially renewable energy led by solar projects, it said.

As per the report, another reason for the low green bonds base is that all of them are denominated in the rupee and held by domestic banks, insurers and the RBI while vast majority of issuers -- as much 90 per cent -- prefer issuing GSSS bonds in ...