While sustainable finance was one of the main campaign themes during the European elections on 26 May, several stakeholders gathered on Wednesday 5 June at a conference organised by Accountancy Europe and the European Policy Centre (EPC) to make their voices and concrete expectations heard by the new European Parliament and the next Commission.
“We have 10 years before the climate really gets out of control [...]. It is due time that we all collectively do something about this issue, hoping that this is not too late”, said Olivier Boutellis-Taft, CEO of Accountancy Europe.
His organisation is advocating a radical change in the way business is done and, to do so, he believes that the emphasis should be on transparency and that climate information disclosed by companies should be certified. “Transparency is great as far as you can trust what is being disclosed”, he said.
For Tanguy van de Werve, the CEO of the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), the quality and availability of company data is also fundamental. While he welcomed the forthcoming update of the Commission's non-binding guidelines on non-financial information (see EUROPE 12199/27), he regretted that they were not mandatory.
Like Mr van de Werve, several of them argued in favour of a certain flexibility, particularly with regard to the European taxonomy (see EUROPE 11977/2). “Flexibility and self regulation is key for us”, said Florence Bindelle, Secretary General of European Issuers.
For BETTER FINANCE, on the contrary, taxonomy should not leave too much room for manoeuvre or be used as a simple marketing tool. There needs to be a “common understanding of what is green” to avoid confusion among consumers, said its executive director, Aleksandra Maczynska.
While the demand for ‘green’ financial products has increased, they are often misleading or lack appropriate advice, she explained. She added, “we really would like to see important safeguards, to avoid Greenwashing”.
BETTER FINANCE also believes that these products should have decent yields. “Quite often we hear that people are willing to compromise some of the returns when investing for the good cause […], but I don’t see why green products should be offering lower returns than brown products”, she said.
While all speakers shared the sense of urgency to act in favour of a transition to sustainable finance, several indicated that there was no need to rush and that companies needed time to implement these measures.
For Rick Watson of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME), the transition must not be “too fast or too slow” to avoid a sudden transition from “all brown” to “all green”.
Julia Linares of the WWF said that the EU should accelerate its efforts, in particular by finalising the legislative proposals currently on the table as soon as possible. In her view, the Commission should also carry out a mid-term review of its action plan in 2020 or 2021, in order to take into account new developments. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)