On 8 April 2020, the European Commission published a consultation paper on its renewed Sustainable Finance strategy.
Building on the 2018 Action Plan on Financing Sustainable Growth, the renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy will provide a roadmap with new measures to increase private investment in sustainable projects and activities in support of the various actions identified in the European Green Deal. It will also include measures to manage and integrate climate and environmental risks into our financial system. The initiative will also create additional framework conditions for the European Green Deal investment plan. The aim of this public consultation paper is to gather the views and opinions of interested parties in order to inform the Commission’s renewed strategy on sustainability.
The renewed sustainable finance strategy will focus on three main areas:
- Strengthening the foundations for sustainable investment by creating a framework with appropriate instruments and structures. Many financial and non-financial companies still focus too much on short-term financial performance rather than on their long-term development and the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainability.
- Increased opportunities to positively influence sustainability for citizens, financial institutions and businesses. This second pillar aims to maximise the impact of frameworks and instruments to enable “green financing”.
- Climate and environmental risks must be fully managed and integrated into financial institutions and the financial system as a whole, ensuring that social risks are duly taken into account where appropriate. Reducing exposure to climate and environmental risks will further contribute to the “greening of finance”.
The aim of this consultation, which is open for 14 weeks (until 15 July), is to gather the views and opinions of interested parties in order to provide information on the development of the renewed strategy.
The consultation paper on the renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy can be found here.