Sustainable finance: Making the financial sector a powerful actor in fighting climate change
The Commission is today delivering the first concrete actions to enable the EU financial sector to lead the way to a greener and cleaner economy.
[The] proposals confirm Europe's commitment to be the global leader in fighting climate change and implement the Paris Agreement. The involvement of the financial sector will greatly boost efforts to reduce our environmental footprint while enhancing the sustainability and competitiveness of the EU economy.
Following up on the first ever EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance, the proposals will allow the financial sector to throw its full weight behind the fight against climate change...
More investments will be channelled into sustainable activities thanks to new rules that define the criteria to determine whether an economic activity is environmentally-sustainable. This harmonised EU-wide classification system – or ‘taxonomy' - will particularly help investors who often do not have enough information about what is green and what is not. All financial entities that manage investments on behalf of their clients or beneficiaries will now have to inform them about how their activities are impacting the planet or their local environment. In so doing, these rules will give more choice to investors who wish to invest in the future of the planet while earning a return.