The city was sweltering. Inside CONNECT 2026, climate finance was heating up, too

The weather outside set the scene

As London Climate Action Week fills the city with conversations on ambition, action, and accountability, Climate Bonds CONNECT 2026 opened against a backdrop that made the stakes impossible to ignore. London is experiencing the kind of heat and severe weather disruption that is becoming increasingly familiar – a reminder that climate change is not a distant risk, but a present reality shaping daily life, infrastructure, markets and communities.

Preserving a liveable future means cutting emissions faster, while also investing in the resilience needed to withstand the climate effects we are already experiencing. From heat and drought to food, water and critical resource security, the climate challenge is now an economic, social, and financial challenge as well. For a room of investors, policymakers, and climate leaders the message is clear: we must mobilise capital for climate action with the speed and scale the moment demands.

The seven trillion-dollar climate market keeps growing

As people and economies increasingly feel climate impacts in the form of heat, storms, drought and disruption, the need for mobilising finance becomes more immediate. Thankfully, we’re seeing progress around the world as the green market continues to surge.

Climate Bonds’ aligned sustainable debt database has now surpassed USD7tn in cumulative issuance, with green bonds continuing to lead the market and more than USD4tn in cumulative aligned issuance. What once took 13 years to reach its first USD1tn has added almost USD6tn since 2020, evidence that sustainable finance has moved decisively from a specialist segment into a core part of global capital markets.

The growth is being driven by the combined efforts of financial institutions, sovereign issuers, development banks and climate leaders who are turning ambition into investable pipelines. At CONNECT, speakers highlighted the continued strength of ESG demand from institutional clients, the role of credible taxonomies and standards, and the opportunity to mobilise capital for the sectors that matter most, from clean energy and grids to green steel, green ammonia, sustainable agriculture, and climate resilience.

Examples from the day showed how that momentum is translating into action. Australia’s latest sovereign green bond attracted strong demand from investors across regions, with proceeds aligned to mitigation, adaptation, and improved environmental outcomes. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s resilience-labelled bond demonstrates how labelled finance can protect communities against floods, typhoons and storm surges. Despite political and social challenges, the green bond market continues to grow and thrive, demonstrating that the global transition is no longer at question. Now, it is only a matter of speed.

The Business Case for Resilience

The physical climate impacts that the world is already feeling – heat, drought, storms, floods, and pressure on food, water, and critical resources – are already affecting economies and communities. The challenge for finance is to turn that reality into credible, investable opportunities that help assets, businesses, and communities withstand climate shocks and keep functioning through disruption.

That is the focus of Climate Bonds’ work with Singaporean DBS Bank , which has produced a new report on adaptation and resilience investment opportunities across Asia-Pacific. The report is designed to give banks and businesses a structured way to identify, assess, and finance credible adaptation and resilience investments, at a time when physical climate risks are becoming more material and private capital flows remain far below what is needed.

The Climate Bonds Resilience Taxonomy provides the foundation for that shift. By defining what constitutes a resilient investment, it helps issuers, investors and lenders move beyond broad claims and towards consistent, science-based criteria. It asks whether an investment makes a substantial contribution to climate resilience, manages the risk of maladaptation, and avoids significant harm to climate mitigation goals. In practical terms, that means resilience finance can support projects such as flood protection, climate-resilient infrastructure, water management, resilient agriculture and systems that help communities prepare for and recover from extreme weather.

Making climate investment easier to navigate

To respond to climate impacts at scale, markets need clear guidance on what counts as credible climate action. In the next fortnight, Climate Bonds will launch an updated Climate Bonds Taxonomy alongside a new interactive platform designed to make climate criteria easier to access and use.

The update expands and strengthens mitigation coverage across key transition sectors, including cement, steel, chemicals and agriculture. It also introduces new areas of coverage, including methane abatement measures for existing oil and gas assets and alternative proteins.

For the first time, selected resilience-related investments will be included alongside mitigation activities. The update also strengthens alignment with leading taxonomy frameworks internationally and marks the first steps towards incorporating criteria from credible local taxonomies.

Together, these developments position the Climate Bonds Taxonomy as a one-stop shop for evaluating climate action and investment, while recognising the importance of local market circumstances and regional approaches.

As more jurisdictions develop their own taxonomies, understanding where approaches align and differ is becoming increasingly important. This update is intended to make that easier.

For investors, banks and issuers, the platform will provide a more practical way to identify climate-aligned activities and understand the criteria that apply to them. For governments and institutions developing taxonomies, it will provide greater visibility of how climate criteria are evolving internationally and where common approaches are emerging.

Meet the climate finance trailblazers

The conference also celebrated the organisations receiving the 2026 Climate Bonds Awards, recognising the issuers, governments and institutions setting new benchmarks for sustainable finance. Across green agriculture, taxonomy development, large-scale European issuance and resilience finance, the award winners showed how credible capital markets can support climate action at scale.

Landshypotek Bank AB was recognised as a Pioneer in Green Agriculture after setting a new benchmark for sustainable agriculture finance with the first European green covered bond to embed sustainable agriculture in its cover pool. The SEK6bn transaction will finance sustainable agriculture across 16,194 hectares of cropland and sustainable forestry across Sweden, while pioneering outcome-based impact reporting at investor-grade granularity.

New Zealand received the Most Innovative Taxonomy award for providing global leadership in the development of science-based criteria for agriculture and forestry, two of the most difficult sectors for taxonomy development. Its approach includes threshold-based agriculture criteria, methane abatement measures for livestock, and the ability to distil consensus amongst scientists, policymakers and industry. It is also one of the first benchmark taxonomies to design technical screening criteria for adaptation and resilience.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) was named Largest European Issuer, reflecting its role as a pioneer of sustainable finance for more than two decades. In 2025, EIB achieved the largest Climate Bonds-aligned issuance volume of any European issuer, with 32 green and sustainability bond transactions exceeding USD30bn. The award underlined how capital markets can support climate action at scale, with more than half of EIB financing dedicated to climate and environmental objectives.

Tokyo Metropolitan Government set a global benchmark with the world’s first Climate Bonds Certified adaptation and resilience deal. Its EUR300m resilience-labelled bond attracted seven-times oversubscription, with EUR2.2bn in bids, and will help protect 14 million residents of Tokyo by strengthening resilience against floods, typhoons and storm surges. Use of proceeds will finance flood-resilient river upgrades, coastal and port protection, slope stabilisation, disaster prevention, and undergrounding power lines for storm resilience.

The conversation doesn't end here

From the growth of green bonds to the emergence of resilience finance, from sovereign issuance to sector-specific taxonomies, the day made clear that sustainable finance is no longer just about ambition. It is about delivery, credibility and speed.

As London Climate Action Week continues, Climate Bonds will be joining conversations across the city on how to accelerate investment, strengthen resilience and turn climate commitments into real-world outcomes. Read the full list of London Climate Action Week events we are attending on our website and join us as we continue working with partners to mobilise capital for urgent climate action.