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23 February 2018

Investment & Pensions Europe: ‘Green’ asset classification system gets go-ahead from EU finance ministers


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EU finance ministers have agreed that a system that classifies what assets are “green” is the basis for the further action on the bloc’s sustainable finance strategy, according to European Commission vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis.


Ministers showed strong support to the sustainable finance agenda, he said.

Dombrovskis, Commission vice president in charge of financial stability, financial services and the capital markets union, was speaking during the press conference that followed the ECOFIN meeting.

The Commission is due to set out its official action plan on sustainable finance early next month.

Introducing an asset classification system was one of the priority recommendations of the Commission’s High Level Expert Group (HLEG). In its words, a “technically robust” classification system was needed “to establish market clarity on what is ‘green’ or ‘sustainable’”.

Speaking in Berlin at a sustainable finance conference yesterday, Dombrovskis said the classification system would provide “the foundation of sustainable finance in the EU”.

“It will help to address the current fragmentation of the market, and allow sustainable finance to reach scale,” he said.

The taxonomy would “act as the common trunk of sustainable finance, from which other actions in our action plan can branch off”, he added, and would be “a living document, evolving to keep pace with the changing realities of sustainable and green investments on the ground”.

It would initially focus on climate mitigation before expanding to “broader categories of sustainable investment at a later point”.

The Commission would present a proposal for legislation on the governance of the classification system before the summer, Dombrovskis said.

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