IsDB green and sustainability sukuk issuance reaches $6 billion

The total value of green and sustainability sukuk issuances by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) has reached approximately $6 billion, stated Bradley Hiller, Lead Climate Change Specialist at the Islamic Development Bank's (IsDB) Sustainability and Climate Action Department, at the event "Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Arab Cities: From Local Action to Urban Transformation" organized within the framework of the 13th session of the World Urban Forum (WUF13) held in Baku, Report informs.

According to him, most recently in October 2025, the IsDB issued a 500-million-euro green sukuk (Islamic bond): "The idea here is that you can help attract private sector finance for investments that can bring social welfare."

Hiller noted that another example emerging in relation to Islamic financing is waqf: "We recently completed a report together with the World Bank Group on Islamic finance and the climate agenda, which examined an example of a 'waqf forest.' This is a model where endowed (donated) lands are permanently conserved and managed for reforestation, biodiversity conservation, and carbon sequestration, while at the same time supporting local communities' livelihoods through sustainable forest-based economic activities. Thus, these are examples of innovative approaches that can help scale up nature-based solutions (NBS).

Secondly, when many people think about multilateral development banks, they think of them as lending institutions. However, we also play a fairly strong role in knowledge generation and methodology development. The report we discussed today is an example of that knowledge generation."