Sustainability Financing Framework
As a major investor in the UK and Ireland’s renewable energy infrastructure, SSE believes that green- and sustainability-linked financing supports its long-term commitment to the principles of sustainability and the transition to net zero.
SSE’s Sustainability Financing Framework 2025 replaces SSE’s Sustainability Financing Framework 2023, which now focuses on two key areas of Renewable Energy and Electricity Networks for use-of-proceeds Green Financing. Both categories are fully aligned with the criteria set out in the EU Taxonomy, including the technical screening criteria, the ‘Do No Significant Harm’ principle, and minimum social safeguards.
Green bonds
Over 2024/25, SSE issued two new Green Bonds: a €600m seven-year Green Bond in March 2025, earmarked for flagship onshore and offshore wind projects recently completed or under construction; and a £850m eight-year Green Bond in September 2024, to finance and/or refinance transmission infrastructure projects. These represent SSE’s eighth and ninth Green Bonds and bring the total outstanding Green Bonds issued by SSE and subsidiaries to £4.9bn, reaffirming SSE’s status as the largest issuer of Green Bonds in the UK corporate sector.
The proceeds from all nine of SSE’s Green Bonds were directly allocated to the refinancing of eligible green projects listed in the Green Bond Frameworks, and therefore fully employed at settlement.
A commitment was given to update investors each year on the allocation of proceeds and environmental impact from the Bond. SSE’s Green Bond reports are detailed below, along with Ernst & Young LLP's independent assurance of allocation to specific eligible green projects.