Sustainable Finance Package: Context and CommentThe Commission’s intention with its Sustainable Finance Package is twofold: (1) in the short term, to set a clear regulatory framework to encourage investments that will contribute to a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; and (2) in the long term, to ensure the transition to a carbon neutral EU economy by 2050, in accordance with the 2020 European Climate Law. Following the adoption of the EU Taxonomy Regulation (explained further below), the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, and the Benchmark Regulation, which enhances the transparency of benchmark methodologies, the Commission has in this legislative package laid out the next building blocks for its envisioned sustainable finance ecosystem.
In addition to the impact on financial institutions and investors directly subject to the new laws, the Sustainable Finance Package may impact corporates in the following ways:
- Corporates may be more likely to receive requests for data on their environmental and other sustainability practices as upstream capital markets participants grapple with new obligations to distinguish between green, “light green,” and other investments;
- Corporates may be subject to direct requirements to report on activities relating to their environmental, social, and governance objectives;
- Longer-term, the package may form the basis of a “blueprint” for wider stakeholders, meaning that corporates may need to improve performance against the standards, not just to attract capital, but also to remain competitive; and
- On a global level, these EU sustainability measures have real potential to become gold standards and influence the investment market outside of the EU, a phenomenon known as the ‘Brussels Effect’.[1]