EFAMA responded to a public consultation of the Platform on Sustainable Finance on a social taxonomy.
The asset management industry plays a key role in meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal to make the EU’s economy sustainable. Our members integrate ESG considerations across their risk management processes and investment decisions. They develop sustainable investment products and foster transparency to fight greenwashing. This increases choice, trust and, in turn, retail investors’ participation. Overall, such efforts mobilise capital towards a fair and just transition to a climate-neutral economy by 2050.
EFAMA actively contributes to the development and implementation of EU’s sustainable finance initiatives. Among them are a comprehensive transparency framework for financial market participants, standards and labels for green financial products, classification of green economic activities and policies enhancing corporate sustainability reporting.
EFAMA responded to a public consultation of the Platform on Sustainable Finance on a social taxonomy.
EFAMA responded to a public consultation of the Platform on Sustainable Finance on taxonomy extension options linked to environmental objectives.
EFAMA welcomes IOSCO's enhanced attention to transparency efforts supporting informed and qualified investment decisions in sustainability-related products. We support the adoption of such recommendations at the international level and believe IOSCO should leverage the experience with SFDR and Taxonomy in Europe to help establish consistent international standards, definitions and best practices.
In this response, we would like to highlight three pressing challenges deserving greater attention in the report from asset managers' perspective.
Clarification is urgently needed to enable rather than restrict EU sustainable investment
The EU has been at the forefront of green bond issuances, demonstrating strong growth and commitment to sustainable finance. However, ESMA’s new Fund Naming Guidelines create inconsistencies with other sustainable finance regulations, like the EU Green Bond Standard, which could hamper the growth of the corporate green bond sector.
Regulatory clarity required to sustain further growth
This report looks specifically at the evolving trends of the equity asset class of sustainable UCITS, whose share is the highest (53%) in total sustainable UCITS funds. It highlights their role as investment vehicles in facilitating the green transition. The universe of sustainable equity UCITS funds is defined based on Morningstar’s classification of sustainable financial instruments1. This means funds must claim to have a sustainability objective, and/or use binding ESG criteria for their investment selection.
The report looks at the major trends in the ESG UCITS market, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and the behaviour of ESG and non-ESG funds.
For this Market Insights, EFAMA collaborated with its member associations and strategy consultants at INDEFI to estimate the level and nature of ESG investment by European asset managers at the end of 2019, distinguishing between the ESG strategies applied at the firm level and those applied at the level of individual fund and discretionary mandate. The assets under management covered in the report include EUR 12.5 trillion of investment fund assets and EUR 11.4 trillion of mandate assets.*