Developed in consultation with investor members, our paper identifies policy-related barriers to net zero created by the EU’s sustainable finance policy framework and recommendations to address them.
The resource is the culmination of our engagement and advocacy on a broad range of EU regulations. It sets out the views of our investor members on the policy barriers to, and opportunities for, net zero alignment across the EU’s sustainable finance landscape.
➡ Read the summary for policymakers
➡ Read Delivering 2030: Investor Expectations of Sustainable Finance
We hope it can serve as a valuable contribution to the debate as the EU institutions build out their priorities for the next mandate to deliver on their 2030 climate goals and beyond.
A crossroads
Sustainable finance regulation in the EU is at an important crossroads. In 2018, the EU’s High-Level Expert Group published its landmark report, which threw into stark relief the scale of investment needed to support the EU’s climate goals. The report made clear that achieving this was beyond the capacity of public finance alone, and set out a vision for a comprehensive and ambitious sustainable finance agenda to accelerate private investment in the transition.
Six years later, the Commission has translated many of that report’s key recommendations into reality.
The pace and intensity of the legislative agenda has been unprecedented, and the result is that the building blocks of a regulatory framework for sustainable finance are now in place. Investors now have access to the tools they need to identify climate solutions, assess the credibility of corporate transition plans, and manage their exposures to, and impact on, climate change. And the EU has established a regulatory framework for sustainable finance that provides a blueprint for other jurisdictions to follow.
What happens in the next six years is just as important. The incoming EU mandate will span the period running up to the critical milestone of 2030, and the Commission’s focus must now turn from ambition to implementation.
We have long advocated for the role policy must play in creating an enabling environment for scaling financial flows in line with climate goals and decarbonising the real economy. This is an opportune moment to build on the significant progress made and to ensure that the EU’s suite of regulations provide a basis for channelling capital in line with net zero.
➡ Read Delivering 2030: Investor Expectations of Sustainable Finance
This resource has first released to IIGCC members. If you would like to be the first to access our resources, insights and working group research, get in touch with our investor relations manager today.