Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) has published its inaugural sustainable finance framework, which sets out the bank’s guiding principles to achieve long and short-term environmental, social and sustainability goals.

The Doha-headquartered bank says it can leverage on the framework to issue green, social or sustainability-labelled sukuk and other financing products that are aligned with the International Capital Market Association’s green bond principles, social bond principles and sustainability bond guidelines.

The framework includes a comprehensive spectrum of eligible green project categories related to renewable energy, clean transportation, energy efficiency, green buildings, and pollution prevention and control, and it covers a wide range of socio-economic programmes.

In forming the new structure, the bank obtained a second-party opinion from Sustainable Fitch, which evaluated the framework as being aligned with the relevant sustainable finance market principles, and Standard Chartered Bank acted as the sole sustainability structuring bank.

“As a pioneering financial institution committed to responsible and sustainable banking practices, our new sustainable finance framework for our sukuk programme,” says Hossam Khattab QIIB’s chief financial officer, “underscores our dedication to aligning our operations with global sustainability goals while contributing to Qatar's economic development.”