Turning Ambition into Action:

ICC and Sage Release 2025 SME Climate Finance Stocktake

As the world prepares for COP30 in Belém, a new global report by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Sage delivers a clear message: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are more ambitious than ever on sustainability, but access to finance is still lagging far behind.

The 2025 SME Climate Finance Stocktake, the fifth in this global series, tracks progress from 2021 to 2025 and exposes a widening gap between SME ambition and the availability of green finance. While 70% of SMEs now say sustainability is central to their business, fewer than 3% have accessed a green finance product.

Digital and AI: The missing link

The study identifies a key factor separating leaders from laggards: digital capability.

SMEs that use digital accounting, e-invoicing, or AI-powered carbon tracking are four times more likely to access green finance than their peers. Yet for most small firms, fragmented and complex reporting requirements continue to block progress, leaving billions in potential investment untapped.

As ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO and Sage CEO Steve Hare note in their foreword, technology is not just a productivity tool but a gateway to green finance. Automating reporting, standardising data, and integrating trusted digital systems are essential to scaling sustainability for SMEs.

Policy alignment and practical action

The report calls for governments, financial institutions, and technology firms to work together to make sustainability reporting simpler, faster, and more affordable. It outlines five urgent actions to bridge the gap between ambition and finance, including:

• Developing consistent, streamlined SME reporting standards aligned with the new VSME framework and ISSB baseline;

• Expanding sustainability-linked loans, transition finance, and blended finance mechanisms;

• Incentivising SME reporting and investment through fiscal support and digital tools;

• Leveraging AI and structured data to make sustainability reporting “report once, use many times”;

• Standardising data requests across banks and buyers to unlock scale and trust.

  
  

From ambition to economic opportunitylink

With SMEs representing over 90% of global businesses and around 40% of emissions, their success is essential to the world’s net-zero transition. Enabling them to access climate finance is not just good policy, it’s an investment in inclusive, resilient economic growth.

ICC and Sage will take these findings to COP30, advocating for practical, collaborative solutions to empower SMEs as the driving force of a just and effective transition.

Read further

• Full report: SME Climate Finance Stocktake 2021–2025 – Turning Ambition into Action (ICC & Sage, 2025)

• 🌱 ICC COP30 Climate Action page – Learn how ICC is mobilising business for climate ambition and adaptation finance.