The asset management industry recognises the much-needed adoption of mandatory European sustainability reporting standards under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) proposal. Insufficient availability of meaningful, comparable, reliable, and public Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data is a key impediment to realising the full potential of the EU's sustainable finance regulatory framework. Financial market participants' sustainable investments need to be driven by real, verifiable and reported ESG metrics of company's activities and financial risks.
Sustainability reporting (CSRD)
To integrate ESG consideration into investment decisions, asset managers need reliable, comparable and standardised information on how companies perform against pre-defined sustainability criteria. At the same time, asset managers require better ESG company data for their own compliance with reporting obligations under the Taxonomy and SFDR.
EFAMA advocates expanding the scope of entities and adopting mandatory EU sustainability reporting standards under proposed Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. Sustainability information disclosed under CSRD should be subsequently centralised in a publicly-accessible European Single Access Point. At the same time, the EU should encourage developments towards a harmonized global sustainability disclosures ecosystem. To ensure consistency, transparency and accountability, we also advocate for the development of a European regulatory framework for providers of sustainability data, research and ratings.
Position on the scope of CSRD and the interplay with SFDR
IFRS consultation on sustainability reporting
EFAMA shares the urgent need to improve the consistency and comparability of sustainability reporting at a global level. We believe this is a crucial enabling factor to the success of the global efforts to mainstream sustainability in the financial sector. A global set of internationally recognised sustainability reporting standards would help establish an effective chain of information from corporates to the benefit of investors.
Joint statement on the revision of the NFRD in the context of Covid-19
Simplification Omnibus reduces regulatory burden while maintaining important sustainability ambitions like double materiality
Yesterday, the European Commission published its first regulatory simplification Omnibus, which aims to reduce the sustainability reporting burden on EU companies through amendments to the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and EU Taxonomy Regulation. We support this initiative as a positive and necessary step to increase the competitiveness of European companies and reduce regulatory burden, while still maintaining the ambitions of the EU Green Deal.
Positive developments include:
Asset managers need corporate sustainability data to guide their sustainable investing and comply with regulatory reporting
European Commission’s Omnibus initiative should also be used to make CSRD consistent with SFDR
Joint industry letter on corporate sustainability reporting
EFAMA has joined together with the European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif), the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and over 90 investors and financial market participants, to call on the European Commission to uphold the integrity and ambition of the first set of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
Market Insights | Issue #4 | ESG investing in the UCITS market: a powerful and inexorable trend
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.
3 questions to Thierry Bogaty on the EU Ecolabel for retail financial products
Q #1 Can the EU Ecolabel for retail financial products help channel individual investors’ savings into environmentally sustainable projects?
A well-designed EU Ecolabel has the potential to provide clear guidance on the financial products retail investors can invest in if they wish to support environmentally sustainable projects and activities - in line with the EU Taxonomy Regulation. The European Commission wants to create a trusted and verified label for retail investors, who would benefit from better comparability of financial products.
