The European sustainable finance association, Eurosif, has published a regulatory roadmap with recommendations for EU policymakers to accelerate sustainable growth toward a resilient and low-carbon economy.
According to Eurosif, a significant amount of money must be raised from the private financial sector to achieve financial stability, reinvigorating economic growth and competitiveness and guaranteeing strategic autonomy. As such, investors and other financial institutions need a facilitating EU sustainable finance regulatory
framework that is “coherent, sufficiently ambitious, usable well-implemented and complete”.
Eurosif’s outlined five key recommendations for EU policymakers to make this happen. These include identifying investments that contribute to a just transition; strengthening the tools supporting and enabling investments; enhancing investor stewardship and engagement to incentivise and support the companies they invest in; improving the quality of sustainability information presented to consumers and investors; and mobilising the contribution of retail investors and savers.
Each of these recommendations is underpinned by a series of specific policy actions that EU policymakers should take to strengthen and expand the EU sustainable finance framework.
Commenting on the roadmap’s publication, Nathalie Dogniez, chair of Eurosif said: “The world is at a critical juncture in the drive to mitigate climate change; meanwhile, the current geopolitical context is that of increasing polarisation, protectionism and conflict. To secure its future, Europe must act resolutely to address these challenges. Considering this reality, the scaling-up of sustainable finance to support a just transition to a low-carbon economy is a key strategic opportunity for the EU and the recommendations laid out in this roadmap give policymakers the means to seize this opportunity.”
Eurosif executive director, Aleksandra Palinska, added: “While public support and funding is essential, private finance remains key in bridging the current investment gap. In order to play its role in the just transition, investors need an EU sustainable finance regulatory framework that is complete, coherent, sufficiently ambitious, usable and well-implemented. To achieve this, we urge EU policymakers to heed the recommendations set out in this roadmap and to consider the enormous economic and societal risks of inaction when compared to the significant benefits and advantages of delivering sustainable growth.”
