Legal & Regulatory News

EU release speech by European Commissioner for Financial Services on Sustainable finance initiatives

On 5 December 2022, the European Parliament published a speech given by Mairead McGuinness, the European Commissioner for Financial Services, Financial Stability and Capital Markets Union (the Commissioner), setting out details of current sustainable finance initiates being conducted in the EU.

The Commissioner spoke to a number of current and potential future EU sustainable finance initiates, including:

• publication of a set of Q&As on the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR) to address concerns relating to the application of SFDR, legal and reputational risks as well as the growing number of greenwashing allegations;
• plans to issue a consolation in early 2023 on the implementation of SFDR;
• proposals to increase the transparency of ESG ratings, including introducing rules on the operations of ESG ratings agencies; and
• publication of 200 FAQs to support businesses with reporting obligations under the Taxonomy Regulations (EU) 2020/852.

The Commissioner also noted that the Commission's work until now had focused on climate mitigation and adaption. However, she identified that future efforts should focus on creating technical screening criteria suitable for activities that contribute to the EU's four other environmental objectives.

Click here to view the speech.

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