At the beginning of July 2021, the Commission published the new Sustainable Finance Strategy and the new European Green Bond Standard (EUGBS). Both initiatives aim to further establish the European leadership in setting international standards for sustainable finance.

More in detail, the Sustainable Finance Strategy aims to provide SMEs and consumers the right tools to access transition finance, extending the existing tools. It further aims to enhance the resilience of economic and financial systems facing sustainability risks, while at the same time increasing the contribution of the financial sector to sustainability.

The high investor interest for green bonds is guiding the Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on the EUGBS. This instrument will help in setting a “gold standard” for both public and private investors, helping them in raising funds to finance ambitious investments. The ultimate goal is to further help them in avoiding greenwashing and showing that their investments are aligned with the as EU Taxonomy, which establishes an EU framework to facilitate sustainable investment.

Concerning the latter, the Commission further adopted a Delegated Act supplementing Article 8 of the Taxonomy Regulation, which requires financial and non-financial actors to provide investors with information regarding the environmental performance of their economic activities and assets. The new Act now specifies the exact information to be disclosed by either non-financial companies or large banks, including for instance the share of environmentally sustainable activities they finance or invest in.

Read more about the new proposals here.