One of the most anticipated news this week is the European Commission‘s publication of the Technical Expert Group’s (TEG) final recommendations on the taxonomy. The TEG remains ambitious, especially regarding the timeline.
Unfortunately, we were unable to travel to Paris on March 10, as the Sustainable Investment Forum Europe was postponed. However, we found the time to catch up remotely with Paris-based Suzanne Dos Santos-Wahl from State Street Global Advisors, who provided some perspective on the advances of sustainable investing in her home country.
Another important report this week was ShareAction and the Asset Owners Disclose Project‘s “Point of No Return”, where the organisation attempts to classify the sustainability of major asset managers. There is certainly room for improvement!
Whether the taxonomy will make a difference is still to be seen. Meanwhile, regulatory pressure increases. The UK FCA published proposals, this week, outlining new climate-related disclosure requirements for premium listed issuers. Meanwhile, PensionDanmark took a significant step towards normalising sustainability disclosures and increasing transparency by including important ESG information in its annual report.
Recently, the European Stability Mechanism signed the UN PRI and new sustainable investment opportunities continue to grow with American Century Investments and Nomura Asset Management launching jointly an Emerging Markets Sustainable Impact Equity Fund. S&P Dow Jones also launched the first benchmark for European Carbon Emission Allowances.
Finally, on the Nordic green bond scene, Vattenfall successfully issued its second green bond this week, despite the market turbulence.
Image by Susann Mielke from Pixabay
