The 16th edition of the Global Green Finance Index (GGFI) evaluates green finance offerings from 94 financial centres. The GGFI serves as a valuable measure of the development of green finance for policy and investment decision-makers.

The top 20 centres in GGFI 16 are shown in the table below.

GGFI 16 Headlines

• Zurich overtook London to take first place in the index, while Singapore and Geneva retained third and fourth positions. Zurich’s quality rating fell by less than London in GGFI 16.
• Amsterdam, Paris, and Brussels entered the top 10 in this edition of the index, replacing Montreal, Oslo, and Toronto.
• Western European centres take nine of the top 10 places. Singapore is the only Asia/Pacific centre in this leading group. No US centres feature in the top 10.
• The margins separating centres at the top of the index are small. Among the top 10 centres the spread of ratings has widened from 13 points out of 1,000 in GGFI 15 to 24 points in this edition.
• Thirteen centres rose 10 or more places in the rankings. Seven centres fell 10 or more places.

• There has been a continuing drop in confidence in the development of green finance in financial centres. In the last edition of the index, the average rating was down 5.91%. In this edition the average rating is down 3.08% compared with GGFI 15, with all but three centres dropping in the ratings. This reflects a net drop of 8.83% over the last 12 months. This may reflect changes in the outlook for the economy generally, and lack of certainty about the direction of US policy.
• This is marked by the difference in the change in the quality ratings as opposed to the depth ratings, with quality ratings falling 6.64% over the year, while depth ratings fell 11.05%. This suggests major concerns about the amount of green finance being transacted across the world.
• Among those responding to the GGFI survey, Green Bonds, Sustainable Infrastructure Finance, and Green Loans are rated as the areas of green finance with most impact, while Renewable Energy Investment, Sustainable Infrastructure Finance, and ESG Analytics are seen as the areas of most interest.
• Policy and Regulatory Frameworks, Climate Change, and Public Awareness Public Awareness are listed by respondents as the major drivers of green finance. These underline the importance of regulatory frameworks and demand in green finance.

In the supplement to this edition of the GGFI, the Green Finance Forum of 60, based in Shanghai, provide an update on the development of transition finance globally but with a particular focus on China.

We researched 128 financial centres for GGFI 16. Full details of GGFI 16 can be found at www.greenfinanceindex.net.

Professor Michael Mainelli, Chairman of the Z/Yen Group, said:

"Leadership in green finance continues to come from Europe but increasingly the challenger is Asia rather than the US. It is understandable, but discouraging to see the departure of some fair weather green finance interest. Geopolitical and economic storms do challenge the sector. As unscientific as it sounds, it feels that one sees far fewer multi-coloured UN Sustainable Development Goal lapel pins at western financial services events than before the end of 2024.”

ENDS

Information For Editors

About GGFI 16

GGFI 16 rates 94 financial centres across the world combining assessments of the depth and quality of green finance in those centres from financial professionals with quantitative data which form instrumental factors.

GGFI 16 uses 3,322 financial centre assessments collected from 458 financial services professionals who responded to the GGFI online questionnaire. The GGFI is updated regularly, and ratings change as assessments and instrumental factors change.

To find out more about sponsorship opportunities, joining the Vantage Financial Centres network, further research, and bespoke reports on individual financial centres, please contact us.

Previous Editions

Previous editions of the GGFI can be accessed at https://www.longfinance.net/programmes/financial-centre-futures/global-green-finance-index/ggfi-publications/.

Long Finance

GGFI is part of the Long Finance initiative (www.longfinance.net), which undertakes research programmes on Financial Centre Futures, Sustainable Futures, Distributed Futures, Eternal Coin, and Meta-Commerce. Please get in touch for more details on Long Finance.

Contact

For more information please email Mike Wardle at mike_wardle@zyen.com or by phone on +44 (0) 20 7562 9562 or +44 (0) 7880 737319.